The Origin of Weird: Tarrare and His Insatiable Hunger

Welcome And A Weird Surprise

SPEAKER_02 0:16

Oh hey there.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Oh hey there.

SPEAKER_02 0:19

I'm Kate.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

I'm Bradley.

SPEAKER_02 0:21

And this is the origin of weird.

SPEAKER_00 0:24

And it's gonna get real weird because Kate's not telling me something. What what? I'm gonna tell Kate something.

SPEAKER_02 0:30

What what?

SPEAKER_00 0:32

Yeah, she should stop doing that too. Uh oh. How are you doing? I am well. How are you today?

SPEAKER_02 0:38

I'm good. Are you excited to like share something with me this time?

A Guarded Hospital Room In France

SPEAKER_00 0:42

Yeah, I found this story and I just I didn't want to tell you to do it because then I know about it. So I decided just let's try something a little different. So I apologize in advance if this sucks. I am not a well-learned man. I never even made it past the seventh grade. That's not really true. You did. I did graduate high school. A little bit of college. Anyways. All right. So I have to paint the picture for you first.

SPEAKER_02 1:11

Oh wow. You went southern a little bit. I gotta paint the picture.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

I'm gonna paint this picture so bright.

SPEAKER_02 1:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:18

You can see I don't know what I'm saying.

SPEAKER_02 1:19

Are you using yellow ochre? It's a pink color. Let's continue.

SPEAKER_00 1:24

Alright. We're in a hospital room in France. Oh.

SPEAKER_02 1:28

It's the late bonjour.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

Bonjour. It's the late 1700s. There's a guard outside his door, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:35

Oh, picture. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

Inside, there's one patient.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:39

He's always sick. He's always restless.

SPEAKER_02 1:41

In the whole hospital?

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Talking about one fucking person, not in the whole hospital. Jesus Christ. Inside the room is one paw.

SPEAKER_02 1:51

One patient. Okay. And he's there all the time.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Just fucking listen for a second. Then start reacting to anything I say. He's sick, restless, and he's always hungry.

SPEAKER_02 2:06

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 2:08

But then a child disappears.

SPEAKER_02 2:12

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

There was no witnesses.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

That took a turn.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

No struggles. He just was gone. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:18

Snatched.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

And then pretty much everyone already knew who they were looking at. This one patient. Because this patient has been caught eating live animals whole.

SPEAKER_02 2:29

Oh God.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

Cats, snakes, eels.

SPEAKER_02 2:33

Why do you why are cats always on the list?

SPEAKER_00 2:36

Well, because they're easy to catch. I don't know. So basically when you met Amos.

SPEAKER_02 2:41

Well, true. We're trying to get him to the vet.

Meet Tarrare And His Hunger

SPEAKER_00 2:45

So so when the child vanishes, they don't really ask questions. They just kind of know and they be they basically ask, how long did it take? So this is the story of Terraire. I don't know. I'm probably pronouncing it wrong, so I apologize. It's uh the man who could not stop eating.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 3:07

Yeah, it's fucking weird. Great setup. So Terray is born in rural France around 1772. And pretty much right away, people uh more or less could tell something is not normal about him. Um, because he didn't just have a big appetite, you know, like kids grow, right? It's like, oh, he's just a growing boy.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

He's a growing man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:28

No, he had a pretty much a constant aggressive hunger, which is, you know, yeah, you get hungry, and like he had hangry to like the nth degree, basically. Is that a thyroid issue? Probably, I think, right?

SPEAKER_02 3:42

But like a hormone situation, yeah, something like that, right?

SPEAKER_00 3:46

Maybe, maybe, yeah, anyways. Um, but uh it's this is the kind of like hunger that just doesn't turn off, like you can't he's insatiable, basically. Yeah, um, so as a teenager, and there's a disclaimer I say it later on. Okay, you'll understand when I say it. Okay, but as a teenager, he can reportedly eat a quarter of a cow in a single day. Could you A quarter of a cow? Has Nathan ever bought like bulk cow? Because I know he gets all of his venison and stuff. He's done a full hog. But okay, and that's a lot of meat, right? Yeah, could you imagine a quarter of a cow in a day?

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Jesus.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

That's fucking insane.

SPEAKER_02 4:28

But, anyways, unless it's like the bottom quarter, and then it's just like here's some hooves.

SPEAKER_00 4:35

Can I get another udder, please?

SPEAKER_02 4:37

And this is why I tell the story. Yes.

Sideshow Eating And Live Animals

SPEAKER_00 4:40

Anyway, so um, pretty much when there wasn't enough food, he didn't stop. He just ate whatever he could get his hands on. So he would literally eat rotten meat, garbage, um, pretty much anything he could fit into his mouth, more or less. Uh, and eventually his family couldn't keep up with him because that's a lot. Yeah, he's eating them out of house and home. So they did what any rational family would do. Uh they threw him out.

SPEAKER_02 5:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:10

Yeah. So now that he was on his own, uh pretty much where knowing that he's kind of weird like this, where do you think he went? What would your guess be?

SPEAKER_02 5:25

The circus.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

More or less a sideshow.

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Nice.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

So pretty much, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 5:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:31

Excuse me, I was parched. Alright, so this is um he be people started really caring about him and they're like, I gotta see this. So people came to pay and see him or whatever. He would eat entire baskets of apples in seconds. He would swallow stones, corks, what objects that aren't edible, basically. And then he grew he moves up to eating live animals. Cats torn apart with his teeth. This this always this creeps me out, even just reading it. Snakes swallowed whole.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

No things.

SPEAKER_00 6:14

He would eat eels alive. Where the fuck do you get your hands on eels? Especially in the late 1700s. Just like could you imagine that just disappearing down his throat?

SPEAKER_02 6:24

Slithering down.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Yeah. It's very gross. Alright, so I wish I could, I wish they had a I could find a better description of him because um I all I got was that he was a very skinny.

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Oh, really? Okay, it has to be hormones.

SPEAKER_00 6:44

Right.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

It has to be.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Oh, I would imagine so.

SPEAKER_02 6:47

Because his metabolism is through the roof then.

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Well, yeah, because it's just constant.

SPEAKER_02 6:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Um, so and I actually said it here though, but uh basically it it kind of gets more disturbing after that, even no, eating live animals is in my book pretty fucking disturbing. Um, he's actually so he's not he's not a large person, he's not an overweight person, he's actually pretty thin.

SPEAKER_02 7:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:10

Uh, but clearly something about his body is wrong, right? So his mouth is unusually wide. So apparently he could fit Cheshire cat. Right. Um, his skin hangs loose because it's stretched all the time from him eating, filling himself up, and then so his skin is like loose and like hanging there. Um pretty much when he would eat, his stomach would bulge out, like he would look like instantly like he swallowed a basketball, like pregnant. Yeah, whatever. Um it looked very unnatural. Uh and the this is probably the worst part. Maybe not the worst part. And then there's the smell. Ew. Every account that could be found on him agrees on this. He smells so bad people can't even stand near him.

SPEAKER_01 8:00

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 8:00

He smells like he's rotting, like he's sour smelling, just rotting from he's got a tumor. Maybe. Um, but we we kind of I kind of go over a little bit, but but his body runs really hot. And it's funny because when I read this, I'm like, shit, I kind of do this too. Um so and so hot that in cold weather you can see heat rising off of him. Yeah. I I do that too. Yeah. But I don't eat like this. No, you don't. And I wouldn't eat cats. I pet them.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Well, you pet, yeah, you own them. I do.

SPEAKER_00 8:34

That only I only have five dinners. Jesus. Um so basically everything he consumes is is burning through him right away. Um, but anyways, so because of all that, he doesn't know his way in life and whatever, and then he doesn't what know his way in life.

SPEAKER_02 8:55

Yeah.

Army Collapse And Medical Experiments

SPEAKER_00 8:55

So basically, history drags him into something much bigger than himself. Terrere joins a French Revolutionary Army.

SPEAKER_02 9:01

All right.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

Okay. Which turned out to be a disaster.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Naturally.

unknown 9:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

Uh, because of course, even especially even back then, uh, military rations are designed for normal people, and he is clearly not that. He eats his portion, then he would eat other people's portions, then anything he could find, scraps, waste trash, just because he was constantly hungry. Um, but eventually his body gives out, he collapses, and is taken to a military hospital. And this is where people start paying very close attention to Terra. So doctors begin studying him, especially Pierre Francois Percy.

SPEAKER_02 9:38

Love it.

The Swallowed Message Courier Plan

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Yep. Because they never seen anything like it. So they do tests on him, they feed him enormous amounts of food and pretty much enough to meet feed multiple men because they're just testing it now, more or less. And he ate all of it because you know that's what Terrere did. Um, he would he even he he would even ask for more even after doing that. But uh just of course, you know, just out of hunger. Um but like his stomach would never hurt, like from being overly full, like well it yeah, it kind of did, and that's why I think he couldn't differentiate like yeah, what the pain and the hunger was, it all just kind of was one thing, yeah, more or less. Uh but because of the test of just feeding them everything they could, uh, they they it goes from curiosity to an opportunity. Oh so the military came up with an idea, they decide to use Terra as a courier. A message is placed inside a small container, and Terrair swallows it. So the their plan was simple. He crossed sent them in across enemy lines, right? And then later he would pass the message.

SPEAKER_02 10:54

Literally pass the message.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

And it's funny because it's like no paper trail, no evidence, just a man. And some poop. And some poop. So at first it actually worked uh until he was captured uh the by the Prussians. They didn't believe him. So they waited and eventually a message came out.

SPEAKER_02 11:15

The message was delivered.

SPEAKER_00 11:17

Yep. So uh uh basically he's not really a spy, he's just kind of definitely not a mastermind of this because he was just a tool for right, he was a vessel, exactly. Uh so they tortured him. Oh, but then they released him because it's not because he didn't like trust like he wouldn't do this again or anything.

SPEAKER_02 11:39

He's too hungry all the time, he eat him for food, right?

What Sources Can Prove

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Uh, but they just decided, well, he's not worth keeping. Yeah. So all right, so before we move on, because the last part is a little weird, I guess. Basically, anything of what was been said about Terra comes from medical reports at the time.

SPEAKER_01 12:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:00

Um, especially from that doctor uh that I mentioned, Pierre Francois Percy. Um, some of the more disturbing claims about Terrer were never proven, just reported.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Yeah.

Dark Accusations And A Missing Child

SPEAKER_00 12:11

So that is, I did want to note that because who the fuck would write anything down about this guy? So they just had the medical records when he was in the military, basically. Um so after his time in the French Revolution or French Revolutionary Army, yeah, um, everything got a little darker because he's back in the hospital and accusations start piling up against him. He's caught drinking, he's caught drinking patient's blood, seen near the morgue, and suspected of eating human remains.

SPEAKER_02 12:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

So he kind of went if is it cannibalism if they're dead still? Uh is that still considered cannibalism? I would assume because it's your same species, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:53

I would assume. I would assume. Yeah. I mean even yeah, because you would still most cannibalism uh, you know, because I'm I know very well about cannibalism, they would kill I thought you were an expert. They would kill them first, typically, and then eat them. So if they're already dead.

SPEAKER_00 13:11

Yeah, I suppose that's that's true. That's the right way to look at it, I guess. I don't know. I don't know. Anyways.

SPEAKER_02 13:16

Never been.

SPEAKER_00 13:18

Never gonna. Um, but again, so then after you know he's seen near the morgue and suspected of doing that, this is when the toddler disappears. So they have nobody had any evidence of where this toddler went. They because they again they have there was no witnesses that saw him do it, there's no witnesses that saw where the kid went or anything. Um but they pretty much just said he did it.

SPEAKER_02 13:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:45

So uh so he's expelled from the hospital. Imagine that.

SPEAKER_02 13:51

You don't graduate.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

And and then just like that, he vanished.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Just poof.

Return, Death, And The Autopsy

SPEAKER_00 13:59

Years later, okay, he reappears. Okay, didn't say how much time. Yeah. Um he was dying, he was very weak, probably because he couldn't get enough food out there for himself. Yeah. And he was more or less wasting away now. Okay. Um he believes something is still inside him.

unknown 14:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:17

Maybe a child, I don't know. But something and he said something he swallowed long ago. Uh, but whatever is killing him, it's not that. He dies shortly after he returns. Um, he was reportedly around 26 years old.

SPEAKER_02 14:31

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 14:32

Yeah. So the doctors, of course, what do you do when a someone dies typically?

SPEAKER_02 14:37

Autopsy.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Correct. And they almost can't even finish it because the smell is so overwhelming.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Ah.

SPEAKER_00 14:44

Just probably just rotting away, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

But inside, his body is destroyed, his organs are all enlarged, which is wild. His insides are filled with infection, and his digestive system is stretched far beyond normal limits.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

That's so weird.

SPEAKER_00 15:03

Yeah. So something inside Terrare was definitely broken. Um, and he basically it was hard not to treat him like a spectacle because of what he would what he would do. Right. I mean, he kind of brought it upon himself by eating live fucking animals, you know, and that's why he was really good at a sideshow. Some would call it a horror story. I would. Cats. Horrible.

SPEAKER_02 15:27

Horrible? Horrible. I was trying to say horrible and horrifying at the same time. Horrible.

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Well, you know, I like the attempt. That was pretty great. But, anyways, so um he this wasn't some fictional character, he was a real person again. Not a lot of reports on him, only his medical records during his time in the army. And basically no one understood because again, this is also late 1700s, so medical advances, not great. Yeah. But yeah, so he was uh insatiable person.

SPEAKER_02 16:02

Crazy.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

Yeah.

Possible Hormones Behind Insatiable Hunger

SPEAKER_02 16:04

So I I looked up if it would be hormones that would cause insatiable hunger.

SPEAKER_01 16:10

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:11

Um, and it seems to be like the biggest potential driver.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:16

Um, there's ghrelin, a hunger hormone that signals your brain to eat.

SPEAKER_00 16:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 16:22

And then there's leptin, which is your fullness hormone, and it that will tell your brain if you're satisfied. Um, so if he never feels full, he's got low lep lepin.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yeah, but he could also have high of the other one that kill him total. Yeah. So it could have been a combination of the two. Just said, you need to eat.

SPEAKER_02 16:41

You're not full. Right. You know. And then there's insulin, your blood sugar sugar regulator. Yeah. Um, and then could potentially also be thyroid, like hyperthyroidism, which speeds up metabolism. Right. Um, or hypothyroidism, which slows it down, but doesn't usually cause extreme hunger.

SPEAKER_00 17:04

But that is so weird. Yeah, I came across him and I'm like, I gotta, I gotta tellcate this. This is just fucking weird. Could you imagine like being that hungry all the time to resorting to literally eating trash and live animals?

SPEAKER_02 17:19

Do you think the animals, once they were in his stomach, were the ones that were like causing his stomach to become infected because they would like try to eat their way through because you know they're still alive?

SPEAKER_00 17:30

Maybe the eels and the snakes. But he would literally he'd have to tear a cat apart to get him down because that would just be too big. Gross. Whereas you could literally just gross his me up.

SPEAKER_02 17:41

Yeah, well, let's not. Um let's not say we did.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

Eel. Am I right? Well.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

I suppose.

Wrap Up And Where To Find Us

SPEAKER_00 17:49

All right, buffoons. That's it for today's episode.

SPEAKER_02 17:52

Buckle up because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you next time. Feeling hungry for more buffoonery? Or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore?

SPEAKER_00 18:03

Hit us up on social media. We're History Buffoons Podcast on YouTube, X, Instagram, and Facebook. You can also email us at history buffoonspodcast at gmail.com. We are Bradley and Kate, music by Corey Akers.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

Follow us wherever you get your podcasts and turn those notifications on to stay in the loop.

SPEAKER_00 18:22

Until next time, stay curious and don't forget to rate and review us.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Remember, the buffoonery never stops.