Holiday origins, one set of notes, two interrupters.
The History of Fun hands each holiday custom to one of three regulars, the day's 'expert', while the other two interrupt, question and joke. Subjects run from Iceland's Yule Cat, said to eat anyone without new clothes on Christmas Eve, to Truman's meatless Tuesdays and a court challenge to Christmas as a federal holiday.
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The History of Fun is a three-voice history show about where holiday customs come from, and it runs on a simple arrangement. Russ Frushtick opens each episode, brings in Allegra Frank and Chris Plante, and hands the floor to whoever is that day's 'expert'. That person is expected to lead with an elevator pitch. Chris's pitch for 'The War on Christmas: A Brief History' is 'Puritans. Love them. Bill O'Reilly.' For 'Krampus, the Anti-Santa: A Brief History' he skips the pitch, promises to defend the fun of his topic, and gets reminded that he skipped it last time too. What follows is research read aloud, not narration. Sources get named along the way: a wiki entry on a federal court case, a New York Times blog, a quoted passage linking Krampus's birch branches and chains to possible initiation rites. Nobody else stays quiet for long. When Allegra traces the phrase Black Friday, a challenge over whether an early use was really the first ends in 'You may be right.' The same stretch covers the 'black' label as a sign of a very bad day and people skipping work on the Friday after Thanksgiving. The War on Christmas episode explains the Establishment Clause with a shrug about legal stuff getting complicated, then gets to a judge's ruling that Christmas had become largely secularized. The three connect that ruling to their own earlier point that the holiday was secular almost from the start. 'The Yule Lads & Yule Cat of Iceland: A Brief History' shows the table at its loosest. A cat said to eat anyone not given new clothes on Christmas Eve draws a comparison to a cruel cat-lady stereotype, a sudden thought about Dobby, and a hopeful theory that the legend pushed people to clothe the poor. That theory gets waved off in favor of a surprisingly capitalist origin tied to Iceland's sheep. 'Presidential Turkey Pardon: A Brief History' detours through 1947, when Truman's administration asked people to observe meatless Tuesdays and poultry-less Thursdays to save grain for Europe after the war. By the show's own account, that was not really a turkey pardon as the ritual is understood today. It does come with a newspaper pamphlet of meatless recipes, one involving canned salmon and crushed potato chips, and the episode closes by asking listeners for recipes. The mood is loose and self-mocking: a sore throat gets a zinc tip from a mock doctor of fun, and a Krampus aside turns into a joke about an Incubus song the show has no rights to play. The recurring sign-off is 'leap the dips'.
Made for: Suits a listener who likes hearing trivia worked out aloud by people who joke their way through it, and who would rather take a Dobby tangent than sit through a polished lecture on where Krampus came from.
What sets it apart: There is no scripted narrator. One of the three reads the research as the day's 'expert' while the other two interrupt, question and riff, so the history comes with running commentary.
The History of Fun explores the hidden backstories behind the things you enjoy. This season, we’re diving into the amazing origins of your favorite holiday traditions. Join Polygon’s Russ Frushtick, Allegra Frank, and Chris Plante each week as they embark on a new quest to uncover these common-yet-mysterious customs. Produced by Polygon and the Vox Media Podcast Network.
The Yule Cat eats people without new clothes; your holiday small talk just got harder to top.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Christmas holiday ruling turns constitutional debate into something stranger, funnier, and unexpectedly Seussian.
The History of Fun treats the so-called war on Christmas as a cultural fight with a long tail, moving from Puritans and the holiday's winter solstice ties to Bill O'Reilly and Donald Trump. The strongest turn comes with Gagnolin v.
Iceland's Yule Cat turns wool-work deadlines into Christmas folklore.
The History of Fun treats Iceland's Yule Cat as more than a strange Christmas monster story, following the tale into questions of wool, labor, and seasonal pressure.
A lightly comic look at how a post-Thanksgiving day off became both a retail opening and a police problem.
Black Friday lands here as a story of overlapping pressures: workers stretching Thanksgiving into a long weekend, shoppers pouring into cities such as Philadelphia, and police trying to manage the crush.
A funny, skeptical Krampus history that balances old customs, shaky citations, and a very large grain of salt.
Krampus comes through as a question of cultural memory rather than a simple holiday monster. The History of Fun starts with a 1934 New York Times scene in a farmhouse in Austria, Switzerland, or southern Germany, with children waiting for St.
Overlooked lives, read from the sources, talked through warmly.
Mike Duncan narrates Rome's full history solo, from Aeneas to Romulus Augustulus's exile in 476.
The History of Fun traces the “war on Christmas” from Massachusetts, where Christmas was illegal from 1659 to 1681, to U.S.
The History of Fun compares two origin stories for the dreidel: a legend of hidden Torah study under Greek rule, and a secular lineage running from the English "totem" to the German "trendle." Allegra Frank explains the gambling rules, with letters standing for put in, nothing, whole and half, and notes that rabbis were assigning religious meanings to the letters by the 1890s.
The History of Fun episode on Icelandic Christmas centers on the 13 Yule Lads, Grýla, and the Yule Cat, with Johannes Orkulum’s 1932 poem defining the modern version.
The episode traces Black Friday from the September 24, 1869 gold panic involving Ulysses S.
A 1934 New York Times report says fascist Austria licensed Santa Claus while Krampus was frowned upon.
George H.W. Bush declared the 1989 turkey would not reach anyone's dinner table.
The History of Fun traces Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from its 1924 launch to its familiar character balloons.
Christopher Thomas Plant traces trick-or-treating through guising, souling, and mumming, with roots in European customs around Halloween and the dead.