The Case of the Cottingley Fairies (Premium E327)
Jack returns to torment Jake, Julian, and Travis by ranting about the impending threat of AI via a classic story from WWI Britain. In 1917, Elsie and Frances took what appeared to be photos of each other interacting with fairies. While some immediately recognized the photos as fakes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle was a true believer. Jack talks everyone through the history of the famous hoax, and speculates as to why it is that some so ardently believed in it. Jake, Julian, and Travis challenge themselves to figure out how the photographs were taken and offer insight into whether or not ruining skirts and stockings in creeks is a universal childhood experience across genders.
Tune in to learn the truth behind the Cottingley Fairies, and whether or not an AI-generated fairy named Mr. E is going to kill us all if we don’t celebrate Earth Day.
Jack Laroche:
www.jacklaroche.com
Thanks for subscribing to QAA on patreon.
Check out our new podcast series network Cursed Media and binge the entirety of our new show Science in Transition by Liv Agar and Spencer Barrows: https://cursedmedia.net
Produced by Liv Agar & Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (https://instagram.com/theyylivve / https://sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (https://pedrocorrea.com)
QAA was known as the QAnon Anonymous podcast.
Comments (105)
Late to the party, but Mary Martin’s Peter Pan! There’s dozen’s of us. DOZENS!
I somehow missed this episode so it's a very exciting surprise. I can't wait for the internet to die, and free all our relatives from AI. Remember when Trump said that he was going up get Bill Gates to shut down the internet? That was probably the best case scenario.
MORE JACK please!
The Mary Martin version was heavily featured in my household.
Proud to be one of the three. Didn't really care for the tape as I got older, but I loved it when I was a kid. Jake will always be a nice big boy.
Mary Martin Peter Pan is the only Peter Pan movie. I had a vhs recorded off of the tv and it is my single most favorite childhood movie. Never did I think I’d hear it casually mentioned in the modern era.
Jake, I 100% remember the live play on VHS. Must've watched it 30 times as a kid. Its the one where a woman plays Peter Pan, right?
Jake. I remember. ❤️✊
I have a beautiful, hilarious and slightly disturbing book called “Lady Cottington’s Pressed Fairy Book” which was very much inspired by this story. Written by Terry Jones, illustrated by Brian Froud of Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal fame.
Was that Queen Romana in the auto-Q?
I stayed at Findhorn when I was really into intentional communities and there were a ton of angel believers there. It's a strange place. I think the founders were Watering those cabbages with pee.
I watched that vhs on repeat
Jake, I remember.
Love me some Julian
It’s time 👏 for people 👏 to understand 👏 there’s FAIRIES 👏 in the picture 👏
My grandmother, who grew up in a (very) mountainous part of Greece would sometimes share stories of old-school fairies hanging near by the river, how you don't want to meet them, that if they slap you lose your voice and that they are super bad news for men especially. Also, love the news about the new season of Spectral Voyager, woohoo! Jack absolutely cooked on this episode. What a great addition to the roster. Julian bought some heat as well. Love the show!
Great to see Jake fully vindicated about the Peter Pan VHS. That thing was so ubiquitous in the late-80s, early-90s you could borrow it from the library.
Wow core 90s kid memory, the movie about this came out when I was 9, exactly the right age for me to become OBSESSED with finding fairies in my backyard. They also released a line of branded toys that are lore with my sister and I because we had a legendary fight over this little glow in the dark lantern that came with the dolls. Innocent times 🥲
I know that I'm a few days late on this… But I believe that it was Mary Martin, playing Peter Pan in the 1980s VHS adaptation. I hope that I am more than one of three people 😊
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
The way that my sisters and I were obsessed with Mary Martin's Peter Pan! We wore out that dang vhs tape. And Jake is indeed a nice big boy
... and we still don't know why she liked going down to the Beck. To think all of this was so she doesn't answer her mother's question.
This is fascinating. It's funny and ironic to think the author of Sherlock Holmes was fooled by a Scooby Doo like trick.
Jake, I can Venmo $43.66. It’s gonna be okay, bro… oh wait, I’m only part of the dream. Soooorrrryyyyy…
JAKE I GOT YOU MY BOY I DID watch that Peter Pan growing up in fact it was the only one I’d seen for many years, even as a ‘93 baby. Fun fact, in the stage tradition the children’s father is played by the same actor as Captain Hook!
Love the jack presence.get pwned more often. Podcasts are evil. Do the Dalby spook next
I gotta say Jack writes some damn good episodes!
You know? It clicked into place to me that one of the things that makes this show so great is the music. Obviously you guys have great subject matter for your episodes and I really enjoy all of your personalities as the hosts of the shows. But when you are telling a story and the music kicks in, it really makes it an extra special experience. Anyway, I just wanted to say I love the show and keep up the great work!
https://youtu.be/BBVESip4gbw?si=DUziUxAft-zA10RW
Was anyone else surprised Jake didn’t mention Nickelodeon’s “Fairly Oddparents”? Mr. Crocker (Timmy’s teacher that is always trying to expose his fairy godparents) is one of the most “pilled” cartoon characters ever!😂
He’s too unc for that
I don’t think I remember a Peter Pan tape, but Jake is obviously a nice, big boy. (Great episode btw, love the Jack episodes!)
Jake, I remember that Peter Pan VHS, would watch it during Thanksgiving in the 90's.
I remember seeing a movie made about this story. The fairies are real in the movie. I can’t remember the name of it, but it has to have come out in the 90s or very early 2000s. Anyone know this movie? I’d like to watch it again
I vaguely remember seeing this in theaters, but I would have been about 6 at the time so I had to look it up. I think it was FairyTale: A True Story, from 1997. They played fast and loose with the subtitle, I guess
Jack! I propose only children can see fairies in the same way only children can hear mosquito tone. Which raises the possibility of a security force of fairies being deployed to keep children from trespassing in much the same way city councils play high pitched tones to stop teenagers loitering in public places. Also I love that almost everyone is here except for England's national baby, top notch accent mangling 🧐
Errrrrrrrrmagurrrrd new Spectral Voyager is on the horizon?? Yes!!! And Jack , you are awesome!!! I love when you drop in on the show. Please do more episodes with QAA!
Well that was a wild memory to get pulled up!
Small clarification. While the novelization of Peter Pan was published in 1911, the stage play came first and started in 1904.
Not only do I remember that cassette well I remember being very offended as a child seeing a female Peter pan.
It's the British panto tradition for key roles to involve cross dressing, Peter is usually played by a girl just like Widow Twanky is played by a man.
JACK RULES! Love them!!
I had that peter pan VHS
My Grammie had that Peter Pan vhs! I remember watching it and dancing around her living room. ❤️
I definitely had that Peter Pan play on VHS.
So happy for this episode! I remember watching the movie of fairy tale: a true story when it came out in 1997. I was 6 years old and was obsessed- I think this was the story that fueled my lifelong interest in the esoteric.
People should look up Charles Bonnet syndrome, a condition where those with sight degradation hallucinate little people. Essentially, it’s believed that the brain adjusts to the vision loss by filling in blank spaces and for whatever reason, the hallucinations are often of little people. Those experiencing it are otherwise of completely sound mind, but are often reticent to say anything because they don’t want to be seen as crazy. (I’ve tried to ask my 97 yo grandmother with macular degeneration about it and the result was only awkwardness. Vision loss is simply not a pleasant topic.)
Hey, I remember that very confusing VHS!
How did the Terry Jones "Pressed" fairies book not come up?
I had this!
Jake… I’m with you! My parents took me and my older brother to Fair Park in Dallas to see Peter Pan. All I remember is Peter flying around and being amazed. I also remember my father talking about how Peter was played by a woman and how he was attracted to women with pixie cuts. Both of these pieces of info were amazing in… different ways.
Is the televised Peter Pan the Cathy Rigby or Mary Martin? I watched both growing up but the recording dates I am finding online are messing with me. I know I watched the old Mary Martin one in the 1980s but am I missing a lead between her and Rigby? Also would really love a sea monkeys deep dive because I still find the origins kind of mind blowing: https://www.splcenter.org/resources/reports/hitler-and-sea-monkeys/
On the hand in the second photo. When I was in high school I used to go to the library and look at all the paranormal/cryptozoology books. I do remember seeing a few mentions in books definitely from the 80's at the latest talking about how unnatural her wrist/hands were in placement. And how that made them think it was real.
Oh man, I just unlocked the memory of the Seamonkeys live-action children's tv-show. Ugh!
Loved the outro of this episode
Every episode with Jack has been a delight.
Absolutely. Another perfect addition to the pod.
My mom definitely still has that tape of the Peter Pan play that she recorded. I was totally obsessed with it as a kid lol
Lovely episode
jake i know youre in CMG
Checking in to acknowledge having watched the Peter Pan tape 🫡
I see a fairy every time I look in the mirror
Jake if I would have listened to this before I left my mothers house this morning I could have gotten a pic of a copy of said Peter Pan on VHS that I grew up watching as my mother still has it.
Very excited for the sea monkeys episode
Jake is a nice big boy, Peter Pan is a woman, the dog is a human
I have a childhood memory where I knew, in the moment, that it was coming to a close. When I was in elementary school, every spring we had a field day. I loved field day. Lots of contests, lots of fun. This continued into sixth grade, which was middle school where I'm from. I remember that day last field day was joyous, just pure uninhibited childhood play. At the end of it, I realized that there would be no more field days, and it was almost like I watched a door close. Oh, twelve year old me was still had the same childlike excitement for Christmas as eleven year old me, but there was never again a day where I felt like I did on that last field day, and somehow I knew it even at the time. I swear this is not an adult rationalization. It felt like metamorphosis.
I’ll fess up since Jake asked. Yes I remember the Peter Pan stageplay tape. Not well, I was really young and I think it lived at grandmas house. But you asked for your three people so here’s one checking in.
I loved Spectral Voyager so much. In addition to generally being down for ghost/supernatural stuff, I found it to be beautiful, hopeful, and moving. Definitely became a comfort re-listen. Excited to hear what szn 2 holds!
More Jack! Yay!
JACK!!!
Someone, please make an oldie photo of a fairy dying, with the boys standing around watching. Travis taking a photo. Julian smoking. Jake wearing a photon pack. QAA merch!
Julian should be flicking a cigarette butt onto the faerie as it withers on the ground
I saw the movie based on this as a child, memory unlocked
"image enhancement" is made up. You can't recover details from film, they're just being invented by software. Randi believed in anything that he thought proved someone was a fraud. I am also quite fond of the psychic photographs of Ted Serios and I recommend those to listeners.
1:3 here - VHS complete with 90s commercials
Jake you nice big boy. Gen X here, yes we had the video.
The guy who popularized sea monkeys as pets was a neo nazi so there's probably an episode in there
omg???? thanks for the new rabbit hole to fall into
Just an FYI, Findhorn features prominently in My Dinner With Andre, as Andre Gregory's character spends quite a bit of time talking about his time with the Findhorners
Also, CSICOP is pronounced "psy-cop" Easy to remember. And yes, I had that phase. Precursor to New Atheism a phase, thankfully, I never had as I'm most definitely an old school (as in born of philosophy, not of Islam0phobia)
This is completely unrelated to their amazing stories, but Jack's accent really throws me for a loop. They mentioned Montana before. Is that a Montana sound? No shade. I'm just fascinated by accents.
I adore accents as well. Jack may have some Louisiana accent there.
you guys are killin it lately.
Fun episode. I had the book years ago. The fairies of folklore were never one thing or another. Both the tiny Victorian pixies and Tolkien’s elves are attempts to systematise something that (because it doesn’t exist) has no measurable characteristics. There were always different sizes of fairies.
Every indigenous culture on earth recognizes the existence of an invisible world (ie the spirit world), and science can't prove something doesn't exist. I'm continually astounded at the arrogant assurance so many feel that it's all just imaginary.
I really loved this episode.
Loving these episodes featuring Jack! Thanks for the charming, whimsical episode!
Love Jack and all their contributions as of late. Hopefully this portends a show for them on the cursed media network!
I can go one better. I saw the live action 1960 Peter Pan with Mary Martin on annual rebroadcasts. I am an old.
Jack I believe has been on a couple of episodes sporadically in the past. Super informative and they've got good banter/chemistry with the OGs.
Yes, Jack is a great addition to the squad.
It was probably almost the nineties but I was visiting my family and my little baby cousin was asking me to put Merry Mountain Peter Pan into the VHS. Had no idea what he wanted but my Aunt clarified that it was Mary Martin Peter Pan.
I don't know how to use this website but I wasn't done. I wanted to say RIP to my cousin who passed away a few years ago at age 34. It was just so weird to hear Mr. Rockatansky talk about that VHS (or maybe it was a different one—this was an old production) because I say Merry Mountain Peter Pan to myself all the time.
Born in ‘84 My parents and grand parents would let that vhs tape babysit me regularly.
Dodging and burning, I’d wager…
Pleaseeee do Eurovision next pls
I really love all the episodes Jack has done, hoping to hear them around more in the future!
I hate that I’m in my car right now talking to myself yelling “I had the VHS. I am one of the three!”
I think i did too. Was Mary Martin playing Peter Pan
So happy to hear Jake tease new Spectral Voyager episodes!
I think my neighbor knows the person who invented sea monkeys. I think she did the marketing for them
Please ask your neighbor.
Jake is a nice, big boy that always makes me happy
Absolutely I do remember the Peter Pan play Jake! So here's one of the three.
Like Jake, I was in a Peter Pan VHS tape house.