Comical Historical Events

[The Blaatschapen]

During the last military Engagement Lichenstien had, They took no losses but gained an Italian soldier

That's the one funny history story I'd really love to see sourced one day. I've heard it for years and it's both believable and fun, the army of the country before it was dissolved was comically small at only 80 people, but it's one of those stories I've always worried is too fun for its own good.

Austrian Prussian war 1866.

There are various sources on the internet. Not sure how true any of those are. And the wiki reference to it is unfortunately broken.

[Heloin]

The people of the Soviet Union so loved Pepsi that the Soviet Government turned PepsiCo into World's sixth largest naval power briefly in order to trade for the precious soda. A navy which was soon after sold for scrap by Pepsi.

Unfortunately it’s just an internet tall tale,

Huh, shame I guess.

Who would win:
The entire fucking navy of Georgia, or one Abkhazi Chad with his beat-up fifty-year old flatbed?

This is an exaggeration.

After an initial naval skirmish off the Abkhaz coast, where (according to the Russians) a single Georgian vessel was sunk, the Georgian Navy withdrew to port. Yes, the 'proper' vessels were then largely scuppered in port, but the 'ships' that were taken away on flatbed trucks seem to have been rigid inflatable patrol boats; so arguably not quite as comical, alas, as Heloin may have been suggesting.

I will agree that the idea of a battleship being placed on Ivan’s truck while he blasted Russian hip hop is funnier then the reality of Ivan scuttling about half of the Georgian Navy then driving away with his truck carrying small patrol boats that made up the other half, blasting Russian hip hop.

[Republic Of Ludwigsburg]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood
Beer flood

[The Blaatschapen]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood
Beer flood

People were yeested from existence.

[The Archregimancy]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Beer_Flood
Beer flood

Covered on page 2 of the thread:

I can think of a lot worse ways to go

Would you prefer death by beer?

I give you the Great London Beer Flood of October 1814, where up to 1.4 million litres of porter swept through London near the junction of Tottenham Court Road and Oxford Street (one of the busiest corners in modern London) in a wave up to 4.5 metres high, destroying at least two houses and killing at least eight people.

Not particularly comical, mind - unless you're going for the 'death by beer' angle.

[Nationalist Northumbria]

When the Vikings enslaved English monks, only for the monks to sleep with their lonely wives.

OK, I guess not everyone finds it as comical as I do.

[Ethel mermania]

How about the fact that Pepsi did have a navy until they scrapped it

As noted just seven posts above this one:

Unfortunately it’s just an internet tall tale,

I appreciate that people are often too lazy to go back and read the OP, but is it too much to ask that they pay attention to the active page of the thread?

Dr. Jones, welcome to NationStates, you must be new here.

[The Selkie]

It should come at no surprise, that Caesar was quite a playboy and had several affairs, one of them to a woman named Servilia Caepionis. During a hearing in front of the Roman Senate regarding the Catiline Conspiracy, in which Cato tried to prove his involvement in the whole matter, Caesar received a love letter from said lady.
Cato, thinking it was a note from the co-conspirators, wanted the letter to be read out loud as proof. Caesar, hesitant at first, then let the proceedings take place. The problem was, not only was it a love letter (by some retellings of the story a rather raunchy one, too), but also that Servilia Caepionis was Cato's half-sister.
So, Cato read a raunchy love letter of his half-sister to one of his greatest political opponents in front of the Roman Senate. Apparently, once he realized it, Cato threw it back with the words "Take it, thou sot!", according to Plutarch.
Their affair lasted until the end of Caesar's life in 44 BCE.
Now, to add something for the sake of completeness, Servilia Caepionis was at the time in her second marriage (said husband being seemingly fine with the affair, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, indeed), but also had two children from her first marriage. One of them was a boy by the name of Brutus.

[Forsher]

In the early years of the present century, people became so concerned that a television programme featuring the sale of a prominent bridge was, in fact, not a work of fiction, the makers of the programme were forced to reassure people that the plot was indeed fictional and the bridge would not be sold to some Americans.

[Islamic Holy Sites]

The Chinese war against birds (four pests campaign) that resulted in the Chinese Great Famine that resulted in the deaths of 15-55 million Chinese people.

Birds: 2
China and Australia: 0

[Kowani]

Still dying while having sex is quite funny

Nelson Rockefeller (former Vice President of the United States) died in 1979 of a heart attack at age 70, which was rumored to be caused by an orgasm during sex with his secretary Megan Marshack after the official story broke down quickly and the body was cremated with no autopsy permitted

The circumstances surrounding his death caused New York magazine to print a story with the headline “Rocks’ Off!”, the first line being "Nelson thought he was coming, but he was going".

[Thermodolia]

Still dying while having sex is quite funny

Nelson Rockefeller (former Vice President of the United States) died in 1979 of a heart attack at age 70, which was rumored to be caused by an orgasm during sex with his secretary Megan Marshack after the official story broke down quickly and the body was cremated with no autopsy permitted

The circumstances surrounding his death caused New York magazine to print a story with the headline “Rocks’ Off!”, the first line being "Nelson thought he was coming, but he was going".

Lol that’s fucking funny.

[Republic Of Ludwigsburg]

Timothy Dexter. This man was a nobody who became fucking rich due to his stupidity.
He was appointed deer spotter in an area with no deer.
After the War of American Independence he bought a shit ton of continental currency, which was very cheap at the time. Then, the US government said that it would be exchanging continental currency to Dollars. He earned a fuckton of money out of this.
He was persuaded to send frying pans to somewhere in the Carribean with the joke being that frying pans were used to heat beds but the Caribbean was hot, but the Chad did it, earned a huge profit because the people he sold it to used to stir molasses. Next, Dexter sent wool mittens to the same place, where Asian merchants bought them for export to Siberia.
Then he was asked to send coal to Newcastle, a joke due to Newcastle making a huge amount of coal, but he actually did and he earned a profit since the miners there were on strike.
He also was told by some practical jokers to send mittens to Polynesia, he did and earned a profit because of the Portuguese being very near.
He also mistakenly bought a lot of whalebones, and coincidentally, in Europe whalebones were becoming more valuable, being used for corset stays.
After earning so much money he faked his own death to see if his wife would cry, she didn't and he fucking came out of the coffin and beat her with a fucking cane.
Before his actual death, he wrote a book with 0 punctuation:
"Ime the first Lord in the younited States of A mercary Now of Newburyport it is the voise of the peopel and I cant Help it and so Let it goue"
And when people complained, he added a page full of punctuation marks, saying:
"thay may peper and solt it as they plese" (asking the reader to put them in the areas without punctuation marks)

[Valentine Z]

I suppose this is a little bit comical because it was there for quite some time before people, well, you know, the follow-up events happened.

On 10 November 1985, 75-kyats notes were introduced, the odd denomination possibly chosen because of dictator general Ne Win's predilection for numerology; the 75-kyats note was supposedly introduced to commemorate his 75th birthday. It was followed by the introduction of 15- and 35- kyats notes on 1 August 1986.

Only two years later, on 5 September 1987, the government demonetised the 25-, 35-, and 75-kyats notes without warning or compensation, rendering some 75% of the country's currency worthless and eliminating the savings of millions of Burmese. On 22 September 1987, banknotes for 45 and 90 kyats were introduced, both of which incorporated Ne Win's favourite number, nine. The resulting economic disturbances led to serious riots and eventually a coup d'état in 1988 by General Saw Maung.

It's a bit comical to me personally (up until the riots) because for nearly 2 years, imagine the Burmese populace trying to make any kind of transaction. "That will be 20 Kyats", followed by some poor sod asking if they could break the 75 Kyat note that they have. Of course, people might have adjusted the prices accordingly to make it divisible by the new denominations, but still. Perhaps the only country so far in history with 15, 25, 35, 45, 75, and 90 as denominations for its money.

EDIT: I actually have them as souvenir. The 35 Kyat is my favorite design.

[Ethel mermania]

Nelson Rockefeller (former Vice President of the United States) died in 1979 of a heart attack at age 70, which was rumored to be caused by an orgasm during sex with his secretary Megan Marshack after the official story broke down quickly and the body was cremated with no autopsy permitted

The circumstances surrounding his death caused New York magazine to print a story with the headline “Rocks’ Off!”, the first line being "Nelson thought he was coming, but he was going".

Lol that’s fucking funny.

Oh sure when I post Nelson its crickets

[El Lazaro]

I suppose this is a little bit comical because it was there for quite some time before people, well, you know, the follow-up events happened.

On 10 November 1985, 75-kyats notes were introduced, the odd denomination possibly chosen because of dictator general Ne Win's predilection for numerology; the 75-kyats note was supposedly introduced to commemorate his 75th birthday. It was followed by the introduction of 15- and 35- kyats notes on 1 August 1986.

Only two years later, on 5 September 1987, the government demonetised the 25-, 35-, and 75-kyats notes without warning or compensation, rendering some 75% of the country's currency worthless and eliminating the savings of millions of Burmese. On 22 September 1987, banknotes for 45 and 90 kyats were introduced, both of which incorporated Ne Win's favourite number, nine. The resulting economic disturbances led to serious riots and eventually a coup d'état in 1988 by General Saw Maung.

It's a bit comical to me personally (up until the riots) because for nearly 2 years, imagine the Burmese populace trying to make any kind of transaction. "That will be 20 Kyats", followed by some poor sod asking if they could break the 75 Kyat note that they have. Of course, people might have adjusted the prices accordingly to make it divisible by the new denominations, but still. Perhaps the only country so far in history with 15, 25, 35, 45, 75, and 90 as denominations for its money.

EDIT: I actually have them as souvenir. The 35 Kyat is my favorite design.

If you think that’s bizarre, imagine being a Cambodian under the Khmer Rouge. The old currency is abolished, and you’ll have to use a new currency that hasn’t been implemented yet. One day, the government literally blows up the central bank and declares money non-existent. Then a new government takes power, instituting a third currency in turn, after several years of no economic activity in the country outside of subsistence agriculture and basket weaving.

[Heloin]

I suppose this is a little bit comical because it was there for quite some time before people, well, you know, the follow-up events happened.


It's a bit comical to me personally (up until the riots) because for nearly 2 years, imagine the Burmese populace trying to make any kind of transaction. "That will be 20 Kyats", followed by some poor sod asking if they could break the 75 Kyat note that they have. Of course, people might have adjusted the prices accordingly to make it divisible by the new denominations, but still. Perhaps the only country so far in history with 15, 25, 35, 45, 75, and 90 as denominations for its money.

EDIT: I actually have them as souvenir. The 35 Kyat is my favorite design.

If you think that’s bizarre, imagine being a Cambodian under the Khmer Rouge. The old currency is abolished, and you’ll have to use a new currency that hasn’t been implemented yet. One day, the government literally blows up the central bank and declares money non-existent. Then a new government takes power, instituting a third currency in turn, after several years of no economic activity in the country outside of subsistence agriculture and basket weaving.

Having very recently read through Year Zero and First They Killed My Father that Cambodia spent four years as a country where money was purposely made irrelevant to even surviving day to day doesn’t seem awfully comical.

[The Archregimancy]

If you think that’s bizarre, imagine being a Cambodian under the Khmer Rouge. The old currency is abolished, and you’ll have to use a new currency that hasn’t been implemented yet. One day, the government literally blows up the central bank and declares money non-existent. Then a new government takes power, instituting a third currency in turn, after several years of no economic activity in the country outside of subsistence agriculture and basket weaving.

Having very recently read through Year Zero and First They Killed My Father that Cambodia spent four years as a country where money was purposely made irrelevant to even surviving day to day doesn’t seem awfully comical.

Have to agree with you on that one. Burmese currency denominations of the late 20th century: mildly comical. Cambodian genocide resulting in the deaths of 1.5-2 million people: not comical.

That's not to say we can't get dark humour out of appalling historical events, but the events listed here aren't remotely comical in this specific context.

[Chan Island]

Timothy Dexter. This man was a nobody who became fucking rich due to his stupidity.
He was appointed deer spotter in an area with no deer.
After the War of American Independence he bought a shit ton of continental currency, which was very cheap at the time. Then, the US government said that it would be exchanging continental currency to Dollars. He earned a fuckton of money out of this.
He was persuaded to send frying pans to somewhere in the Carribean with the joke being that frying pans were used to heat beds but the Caribbean was hot, but the Chad did it, earned a huge profit because the people he sold it to used to stir molasses. Next, Dexter sent wool mittens to the same place, where Asian merchants bought them for export to Siberia.
Then he was asked to send coal to Newcastle, a joke due to Newcastle making a huge amount of coal, but he actually did and he earned a profit since the miners there were on strike.
He also was told by some practical jokers to send mittens to Polynesia, he did and earned a profit because of the Portuguese being very near.
He also mistakenly bought a lot of whalebones, and coincidentally, in Europe whalebones were becoming more valuable, being used for corset stays.
After earning so much money he faked his own death to see if his wife would cry, she didn't and he fucking came out of the coffin and beat her with a fucking cane.
Before his actual death, he wrote a book with 0 punctuation:
"Ime the first Lord in the younited States of A mercary Now of Newburyport it is the voise of the peopel and I cant Help it and so Let it goue"
And when people complained, he added a page full of punctuation marks, saying:
"thay may peper and solt it as they plese" (asking the reader to put them in the areas without punctuation marks)

Now this, this is exactly the kind of precious knowledge I came here to learn. Thank you for this one.

[Polish Prussian Commonwealth]

It should come at no surprise, that Caesar was quite a playboy and had several affairs, one of them to a woman named Servilia Caepionis. During a hearing in front of the Roman Senate regarding the Catiline Conspiracy, in which Cato tried to prove his involvement in the whole matter, Caesar received a love letter from said lady.
Cato, thinking it was a note from the co-conspirators, wanted the letter to be read out loud as proof. Caesar, hesitant at first, then let the proceedings take place. The problem was, not only was it a love letter (by some retellings of the story a rather raunchy one, too), but also that Servilia Caepionis was Cato's half-sister.
So, Cato read a raunchy love letter of his half-sister to one of his greatest political opponents in front of the Roman Senate. Apparently, once he realized it, Cato threw it back with the words "Take it, thou sot!", according to Plutarch.
Their affair lasted until the end of Caesar's life in 44 BCE.
Now, to add something for the sake of completeness, Servilia Caepionis was at the time in her second marriage (said husband being seemingly fine with the affair, render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, indeed), but also had two children from her first marriage. One of them was a boy by the name of Brutus.

Caesar literally did Brutus' mom no wonder Brutus stabbed him

[Space Squid]

I can't (legally) link to Terry Jones Crusades series. But I hope you'll trust me that the Crusades are a seemingly limitless fount of comedy. And tragedy. And you should all definitely watch that.

[El Lazaro]

If you think that’s bizarre, imagine being a Cambodian under the Khmer Rouge. The old currency is abolished, and you’ll have to use a new currency that hasn’t been implemented yet. One day, the government literally blows up the central bank and declares money non-existent. Then a new government takes power, instituting a third currency in turn, after several years of no economic activity in the country outside of subsistence agriculture and basket weaving.

Having very recently read through Year Zero and First They Killed My Father that Cambodia spent four years as a country where money was purposely made irrelevant to even surviving day to day doesn’t seem awfully comical.

Not comical, bizarre. You’d be hard pressed to find an fiscal policy less sane than “regress to the stone ages because it was decided on a whim.” When it comes to economics, shitty leaders can be power-hungry; stupid; or greedy/self-absorbed, but Pol Pot (in addition to being evil) was just plain psychotic beyond comprehension.

[The Archregimancy]

Having very recently read through Year Zero and First They Killed My Father that Cambodia spent four years as a country where money was purposely made irrelevant to even surviving day to day doesn’t seem awfully comical.

Not comical, bizarre. You’d be hard pressed to find an fiscal policy less sane than “regress to the stone ages because it was decided on a whim.” When it comes to economics, shitty leaders can be power-hungry; stupid; or greedy/self-absorbed, but Pol Pot (in addition to being evil) was just plain psychotic beyond comprehension.

Yes, well; the Holocaust, the Cultural Revolution, the regime of Macias Nguema, the annihilation of Tasmanian Aborigines... all of these were 'bizarre'. They were also all appalling and not remotely funny.

The title of this thread is 'Comical Historical Events'. Lets at least try and respect the spirit of that intent.

Certainly there are appalling reasonably contemporary historical events, or specific moments within a broader set of appalling events, that have a comical side - the coronation of Bokassa I of the Central African Empire comes to mind - but 'the Cambodian genocide was really bizarre, wasn't it?' isn't really what we're looking for here. While I can't control the direction the thread takes, it was my hope that it would focus on comical historical events as a deliberate attempt to lighten both the NSG mood and my personal mood.

[Perikuresu]

When Nintendo ditched SONY for Panasonic to create a CD console, created a really bad one, and also one of their biggest rivals in the gaming industry

[The Selkie]

Caesar literally did Brutus' mom no wonder Brutus stabbed him

Indeed. So, kids, lesson of the day: Don't get yourself a mistress, who's married and has children, while becoming ruler-for-life of a very, very complicated state, where it is the norm to wear long, flowing robes, in which one can easily hide knives.

[...]
Certainly there are appalling reasonably contemporary historical events, or specific moments within a broader set of appalling events, that have a comical side - the coronation of Bokassa I of the Central African Empire comes to mind - but 'the Cambodian genocide was really bizarre, wasn't it?' isn't really what we're looking for here. While I can't control the direction the thread takes, it was my hope that it would focus on comical historical events as a deliberate attempt to lighten both the NSG mood and my personal mood.

Speaking of which, and hoping to indeed lighten the mood, I would like to mention Joshua Abraham Norton, a.k.a. Norton I., Emperor of the United States, Protector of Mexico. Not a moment, but a broke man, who... that's actually the thing, was he insane or just eccentric or a bloody convincing person? Regardless of that, while he could have easily been written off as just another nutter, the City of San Francisco, including its residents, treated him with utmost respect.
Granted, they profited from him a lot as well, but that is just par for the course with royalty, be they actual crowned heads or not.
When he collapsed and died in 1880, ten thousand people lined the streets to pay him homage.