Short Stuff: Knock on Wood | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh there's Chuck Jerry's here again. sitting in for Dave and this is short. [Music]. stuff come. in oh no I was just uh wishing myself. good luck oh well that should sound like. this we're talking about knocking on. wood and it's actually not for good luck. knocking on wood is more to avoid. tempting fate it depends on who you're.

talking to are you an ancient kelt or a. modern day Chuck uh I'm a I'm a a modern. day kelt oh God no no no I'm an ancient. Chuck that's what I am my brain's busted. now you're gonna have to take over the. rest of this episode. uh no all right so yeah you're right. these days we knock on wood to ward off. bad luck usually it's when we're saying. something like a boast or we're saying. something that we don't want the. opposite to happen like um things are.

going so great for this podcast nothing. will ever stop it from being successful. knock on. W that's another thing you have to do. too you knock on you're doing it too. many times by the way you might actually. be undoing the the charm you I also say. knock on wood when I knock on wood I. guess just to double up yeah Emily. always says she's very a big wood. knocker so she's always like you better. find some wood to knock yeah you can't. you can't mess around with like plastic. or metal has to be wood fake wood even.

that's fake wood yeah so the the there's. been all like this is just a whole. episode on weird little luck rituals we. talked about throwing salt over your. shoulder before um and I think we've. talked about knocking on wood at some. point before because it seems familiar. that it can be traced back to the. ancient Kelts and essentially based on. their belief that trees particularly oak. trees harbored spirits and that if you.

came in contact with the tree you were. coming in contact essentially with the. spirits yeah and trees were a big deal. and you know if you um built your house. out of a tree you may knock on that wood. is sort of saying like hey I believe if. you knocked once it was like hey thanks. for the good luck uh and a second knock. was saying like thank you I guess for. your wood um but all of these things are. action based though and there's. something around that like most of these. good luck things it's like you can't um.

and it's not like good luck is even a. real thing anyway uh but in order to. feel like you're achieving that desired. outcome of luck you can't just think it. um with kind of any of these things that. we're going to be talking about and. they've even done research that was a. study not a great one uh but a study. from the University of Chicago in 2013. where they would have someone say. something that like tempted fate like. our podcast will never you know uh go.

down the tubes or whatever and then you. could either knock wood throw a ball of. course which is not part of any ritual. that we that I know of um or just hold. on to a ball and they found that the. people who felt like all right I think. this this. worked is um the ones who actually did. something whether even if it was. throwing the ball right because it was. in action yeah they they they went to. some effort to secure their good luck or. Stave off the bad luck yeah exactly yeah.

um so apparently that again people trace. this back to the ancient Kelts and their. love of oak trees and their belief that. the spirits are in the oak trees so I. think also one of the things I saw is. that when you knock you're you're. essentially waking them up like wake up. Spirits I need your help to secure this. good luck pretty interesting and then. other people were like no you're. knocking to basically to to make a sound. over you're talking so the bad spirits. can't hear you that makes a lot of sense. too but also isn't it a little too neat.

isn't it a little too tidy doesn't it. seem like there would be a much more. recent much less Celtic pagany. explanation than. that well there may be uh and the Brits. say touchwood instead of knockwood and. apparently there was a game uh when was. this like the n in the 19th century so. much more recent uh called TIG touch. wood I've also seen tigy touch wood uh. where it's basically tag where where. different trees are assigned as bases.

and if you are touching wood then you. are safe from being tagged it yeah a. folklorist named Steve row traced it. back to an 1891 book called The Boy's. modern Playmate that's fun sure so um. yeah he he thinks that this is actually. where this idea of touching wood and. being safe um and then eventually. evolving into knocking wood for Good. Luck came from that it's as recent as. 100 or so years ago.

yeah I think if you're in uh there are. variations if you're in Turkey you do. the knock wood twice but you also pull. on your earlobe one time I like that one. I'm GNA start doing that and I think in. Italy they say touch iron and people say. why I have no comeback for that trying. to think of something Italian there's. nothing to say other than because. there's no good answer there're supposed. to be touching wood they just have it. wrong essentially sorry Italy um I say. we take a break and come back and talk. about some other lucky practices around.

the world how about that. [Music]. sure you. know you. [Music]. know okay Chuck let's say that we're in. Greece and I've seen you across the. street and I'm like like that guy looks.

really good in those pants so I'm. jealous of him you might look over and. see me. go and like kind of wave my hand at you. and what I've just done is basically. given you the evil eye of envy and so to. erase that I've spat three times and. waved off my Envy okay what what culture. is that Greece Greece but spitting uh. it's also big in Jewish culture T is a a. I think three times usually is the way.

you do it for good luck or to ward off. bad luck more more um usually yeah I've. also seen spitting over your shoulder. which that's hard that is hard I mean. you can sort of spit just spit right on. your shoulders what I. do. uh I got one uh. Denmark um this is very interesting they. save their broken dishes M I like sort. of elaborate ones like these so if you. break a dish in Denmark you just save it. all year long and you collect it I guess. in your little broken dish bin and you.

save it till New Year's Eve and they. will they will Chuck their broken plates. uh toward people that they want to have. good luck toward their houses like a. friend or a family or whatever to wish. them good luck um and I think the. children can even just leave a little. pile on their friend's doorstep if they. want them to like instead of throwing it. they can just say like I don't even know. how to do a Danish accent but here's a. little pile of broken dishes do it like. borc even though she's Icelandic I think.

it'll cover oh man I wish I could do. bork um so yeah I like that I also like. leaving it as a pile rather than. throwing your broken dishes at someone's. house because somebody's got to clean. that up yeah uh one of my favorites is. crossing fingers like not only do I like. to cross fingers myself I like using the. Emoji crossing fingers is huge with me. yeah you would think that it probably. dates back quite a ways and there's a. story that um that it actually was um. originated by the early Christians who.

were persecuted by the Romans at the. time so they would cross fingers to. basically signify to one another to make. a symbol of the Cross almost um like hey. I'm I'm with you buddy I'm a Christian. and I read I think in an Oxford. explanatory um article on that that. basically this is how they put it uh so. they found that they can only date it. back to 1912 and said given its late. appearance restricted distribution most. of the UK and colonies and the fact that. cross fingers bear no relation to the.

shape of a cross this explanation is. completely. unfounded my buddy Brett and I have. always done we we go double hope hope. and we each cross both of our fingers I. go m m and kiss each one not each others. wow although we probably should that's. got to work really well yeah I'm not I. mean I don't I think we got that from. why do I want to say we got that from a. movie like True Romance or something I. have no idea I don't it doesn't really. we've always done it so I have no idea. where it came from.

um I know in China uh what they do is. they they believe that your good luck. comes through the front of the house yes. and so before Chinese New Year which is. not the same as our new year they clean. their houses but they don't they don't. sweep out uh the the dirt or the quote. unquote bad they sweep it all in in a. little pile and they collect it because. they have to put it out the back door. you never want to uh if you want to. bring in Good Luck you don't want to. sweep that stuff out of the front door. yeah and then you don't do any cleaning. at all the first couple of days after.

Chinese New Year because you're letting. that good luck accumulate you know yeah. yeah I I actually adopted that one for. um our new year Western New Year oh yeah. yeah nice out the back door I just don't. clean for a couple of days I clean first. and I don't think I was taking out the. back door the side door I guess counts. it's not the front door all right but. then after like so New Year's Eve you. can do that but on New Year's Day. there's no cleaning or anything like.

that well what about Thailand this is. interesting yeah why don't you take it. all right uh little boys and men in. Thailand think that if you wear um I'm. not sure how it's pronounce uh palad Kik. is how I would say it MH um p l a p a l. a d k h i k uh which is a penis amulet. if you wear that uh in your pants then. that's going to bring you luck and this. is just a you know it's a little if you. look them up up they look like very.

ornate of different design but they're. all different versions of little carved. penises uh they usually pretty small. couple of inches and they think that. that will bring you good luck and lessen. like the severity of an injury maybe and. I think just overall good luck yeah. pretty great huh sure why not uh I don't. have anything else do you have anything. else nah well Chuck I wish you the best. of luck in all of your endeavors right. back at you I hold my penis amulet up in.

your honor thank you same to you uh that. means of course short stuff is. that stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more. podcasts ihart radio visit the iHeart. Radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you. listen to your favorite. [Music]. shows.