Chinese Hornets for Breakfast

I'll never look at a hornet's nest the same way again. - I'm Aaron. - And I'm Caris. (in unison) And we're from Warsaw, Indiana. Now let's talk about that. ♪ (theme music) ♪. Good Mythical Morning! This episode is brought to you by The Mythical Shoe. This is our shoe, your shoe, the shoe that you designed. You can pick it up at rhettandlink.com/store along with lots of other things. Yes, it comes in black, blue, and this is cream colored. (woosh noise).

- And they leap out of your hands. - Wow, it's magical. Are you happy to be here this morning, Rhett? - (sighs) Yes and no. - Don't be ambivalent about it. I'm happy to be here, but the thing that I would like us to talk about. makes me filled with a little bit of frustration. A little angst. I could tell even when you walked in the door. I sensed two things. One was frustration, and now I know the second one. - It's - (in unison) Angst.

- Sometimes confused for one another. - Can't really say what angst is... - Teenagers have it. - but teenagers have it. Teenagers are just full of it. Angst, I'm talking about. I was doing what I do a lot of times on the weekend, and that's watching television, recently. I was watching... I've got the Netflix hooked up to my TV; it's very futuristic. - Yeah. - 'Cause that's the way I do things. You just sounded like a 75-year-old. You added a "the" in front of something. - that didn't need one. - Well, I kinda did it for effect,

- Okay. - you know, 'cause I'm so filled with. - angst right now. - Mmhmm, mmhmm. Like old people are. And teenagers. I'll watch anything on there, you know? And I love these documentaries. - You just devour everything that comes up. - I love documentaries. - Like a plant devouring a dog. - I've got to admit that I like to devour. documentaries. There's this one on there-- you may have seen it--. - Wild China. - I have not seen it. - Wild China. - Too scary for me. If it says "wild" in the title, I'm clicking on the next one.

- Okay, well... - I cannot add something into my queue. - that sounds so dangerous. - It's your prerogative. I highly recommend this series. I think it's six episodes; I've gone through two. Okay. I've just gotta tell you something that happened in this thing, okay? This one episode focuses on this really poor, remote region of South China, where everybody's kinda still just doing stuff with their hands, you know? - Just gettin' stuff done. - Okay, doing stuff with their... Should you be saying, like, "spoiler alert?". Uh, no. It'd still be awesome to watch, 'cause I won't tell it nearly as well as.

- they tell it on the actual thing. - Okay. There's this place in South China where there's this river, this roaring river that. - will kill anybody that gets into it. - The Yangtze. No, it's different. It's just this roaring river full of rapids. and there's no bridge, so they have constructed thirty rope-- like, ziplines. across this thing for the people to get across the river. - You're talking about, like, (buzzes) - (high pitched noise) Zipline, you know? Like a theme park. In America, it's just like, "Hey, let's go party.

at the theme park on the zipline!" In China, it's like, "We gotta get to the market to buy a goat on the zipline.". And that's exactly what happened. There was this old woman, she goes. across on the zipline smoking a pipe. And then she goes back across with a pig! She's just like, holding a pig, smoking a pipe, going on a zipline? Yeah! A pig, and then there's a guy with a goat... - I want that woman to be my grandma. - And these are not pets; I'm assuming. - they're gonna eat these animals. - I don't wanna replace you, Grandma, like, my real grandma who's watching; I wanna add to you another grandma.

'cause I don't think that you would willingly go on a zipline. - Yeah. - with a pig, smoking a pipe. - At least not without a helmet. - And I love you anyway. You don't have to do that. But I want to add another grandma who does do that. - I have a need for that. - I could hook you up. - That will take care of my angst problem. - There's these other guys, these fishermen, and they are on these bamboo rafts. These rafts look like they're about to fall into the water, but they've got these. trained pelican-like birds on each side of the raft. All the fishermen have them.

They go out there and they start jumping on the rafts to kind of shake it up. - The birds jump into the water-- - Out of the raft? Yeah. They go and they get a fish and they bring it back to the guy. Now, listen. The Chinese dudes tie a noose around the bird's neck so he can't. swallow the fish. A little loose noose-- like a little string. So they're trying to swallow the thing and he takes the fish out of the bird's mouth.

and that's how they catch fish. Then, when the bird-- these birds can count to seven--. because when they get to seven fish, they stop working and they wait for him. to reward them with another kind of fish, this little catfish that he pulls. out of the boat and he gives it to them. He takes the little thing off their neck. - and he gives it to them. - They will not-- they refuse; - it's like they're union. - The Bird Union. The Almost a Pelican Jumping Out of a Raft Union has set. - the stipulation at seven. - Yeah. - And the loose noose is removed. - Yeah. These guys have trained these.

- birds to do this. - Wow, that is... that is ingenuity. Now, you haven't heard anything until you've heard about the last thing. The hornet's nest. There are these two guys. They take a grasshopper. They put it on the edge of a long stick. They hold it up and they wait until. a hornet comes and lands on the grasshopper, attempting to eat. - the grasshopper. - Hornets eat grasshoppers in China? They do in China. They bring it down, and while this thing is preoccupied, while the hornet is preoccupied with consuming the grasshopper, they tie.

a little string around it with a feather on it-- a little white feather--. - What? - and then the hornet flies off. He's going kinda slow because he's got this feather on him, but they can see it. He's going a little bit slow and they start chasing after this hornet that's. flying through the air. They track the thing through the woods-- it looked like. they went a mile-- until it gets to its nest. They see the nest and they take. this long stick, like a torch, with fire on the end of it. They burn all the.

hornets out of the nest, and then one of the dudes shimmies up the tree, like. 40 feet up the tree. He goes out on the limb and grabs the nest down. They come down, they break it open, and they eat the fattened larvae. out of the nest, because it's a delicacy. I'm bumfuzzled and angst-ridden. I can't believe it, really! You may be asking why this frustrates me, and why I'm full of angst over this. Hold on, hold on. Give me a second. Rhett, why does this frustrate you and fill you full of angst?

It fills me full of joy and amazement. Well, at first I was filled with joy and amazement, and it soon turned into. - frustration and angst. - Well, you're a glass half empty. - kind of guy, man. - And this is why: 'cause here I was, on my nice, soft couch, in front of my huge TV, just laying there half asleep, - like, (slurs) "ehh, hornet's nest... - (laughs). birds... woman goin' across the thing with a...

- Pipe. - pipe and a pig...". (normally) Totally just overprivileged, got more than I need, (slurs) "ehh, pig...". (normally) and here are these people tying feathers to hornets. But you're not saying that you feel sorry for these people. No, no I don't feel sorry for 'em. I envy them! Because they're doing things! These dudes, it's ingenious. I don't do anything with my hands anymore except type. - and tweet and text! - I sense the irony.

And drive every once in a while! But these guys are tying feathers to hornets and. - then eating the larvae out of the nest. - So you're saying you wanna travel there. - and do that with them. - I just feel like I need-- we all need... In this culture, we gotta do something. We gotta build something. Don't bring the culture into it. This is about you. But you can do it if you want to, culture. As if the entire culture watches. - Good Mythical Morning. - It's such a culture-changing show here.

- that we have. - I at least need to do a volcanic kit or. - something. Or a model airplane. - Well, I have a... - In an application. - I've got a rock tumbler. - You remember my rock tumbler? - Yeah! You put the rocks in it and it would turn and it would make 'em smooth. - Yeah, but that's kinda easy. - But then I could make it into jewelry. Would that make you think more highly of me, and then you could join me? You're saying you wanna be ingenuitive. You wanna, you wanna...

Do something with hands, like with a wasp! Well, a hornet. Did I say wasp? Hornets! - Anything! I wanna-- - I take my kids bike riding. I've gotten eight flat tires over the past three weeks. I've told you about this. - Yeah, yeah. - But then, in the garage I would say, "You know, I'm not just gonna buy a new tube, I'm going to patch the tube. - Right. - So I would have to disassemble the whole. bike, the braking system, and I just felt all of this satisfaction.

- Yeah. - And then I'd ride the bike and it. - would go flat again. - But you were satisfied for a little bit. For a moment, for a moment. It was as if a feather were being tied to a hornet. I just feel like we're on the verge of doing too much of this. Too much typing. and not enough of tying up things to insects and around birds' necks. and crossing rivers with large animals. - In the comments, make a suggestion. - Culture. Make a suggestion of-- maybe it's just a hobby that Rhett can take up. that will improve his self-worth. Maybe you're looking at it all wrong.

Yeah, I wanna get rid of my angst, people. Help me. What about birdhouses? Maybe we could build birdhouses that look like. - famous architecture. - Like the White House? - Like the White House, and-- - Washington Monument. There's Lego sets now that are famous architecture. Why does it all gotta be in Washington, D.C.? Who came up with that rule? I didn't say it was. I said it was famous architecture around the globe. Okay. Let's close this episode out with the Wheel of Mythicality. So that's my idea. Birdhouse replicas of famous architecture.

(Rhett) Shout-out to Monaco. How appropriate is it that we landed on. "Shout-out to Monaco?" Because Monaco is the richest country in. the world per capita. They have the lowest unemployment rate of zero percent. - And this place... - And they're all good-looking. They're all good-looking. They've got good food. They all live on the beach. Hold on. Instead of telling them, let's just shout out to them. That's how we're. - supposed to end it, right? - Shout-out to you, Monaco. (Link) Hey Monaco, thanks for watching Good Mythical Morning. We sense that.

you're there for us. We know that your unemployment rate is unreasonably low. and that everyone who lives in your country is unreasonably good looking. - Shout-outs for that. - Yes. Let's play the national anthem... of Monaco. ♪ (National Anthem of Monaco) ♪.

[Captioned by Caitrin: GMM Captioning Team].