In the video game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, there’s an item called the “Boots of Springheel Jak [sic]” that boosts your “acrobatics” skill, letting you jump higher and fall a long distance without getting hurt. :)
Yes , also to get them you have to kill the owner of the boots who is an ancient aristocrat vampire who probably preys on the citizens of imperial city .
In primary school, we used to extend this rhyme, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumped over the candle stick and burnt his peepee* *=Except that it rhymed
@@razeezar In England we say Jack be nimble Jack be quick Jack jumped over The candlestick Jack should have jumped a little higher Goodness gracious Great balls of fire 🔥
Sounds like you maybe are going through a lot right now too. It isn't true that all lives were short back then. People who managed to live past the average age of death often lived much longer. Today it is people who manage to live past the age of 65 who end up living a lot longer. Which is why now that there is a whole lot more of us compared to young people employers need to start considering to hire us and more women in some occupations too so that those of us with less resources to do so can contribute more to the welfare of others too. Otherwise there will be another generation again in which people over the age of 90 are almost all only women. There is no excuse not to anymore with so much more automation and much better applications of mechanical means to get more foot pounds done.
My great grandmother lived like this: As a child they used a horse drawn wagon to buy food at the local market and sometimes drove it the next big city - like every 2 month or so. There were no automobiles. She lived on to see people walking on the moon at the end of her life. Just image what she thought would be possible in one more lifetime... but no, we now just play candy crush on small miracle machines we put in our pockets.
Actually, this in itself is a bit of an urban myth. *Infant and childhood mortality threw the statistics off WILDLY* . IF you could make it through your first three years of life, then you had a much better chance of survival. Then if you could make it out of your childhood to adulthood. After that, lifespans were not dissimilar to what they are now. Of course, there was no modern medicine, nor antibiotics: and moving to crowded cities for work, that didn't yet have sewerage systems, caused epidemics. 😏
Actually, this in itself is a bit of an urban myth. *Infant and childhood mortality threw the statistics off WILDLY* . IF you could make it through your first three years of life, then you had a much better chance of survival. Then if you could make it out of your childhood to adulthood. After that, lifespans were not dissimilar to what they are now. Of course, there was no modern medicine, nor antibiotics: and moving to crowded cities for work, that didn't yet have sewerage systems, caused epidemics. 😏
The comic-book Batman was influenced by Mary Robert Rinehart's 1920 play, "The Bat" (based on her 1908 novel, "The Circular Staircase), where a robber dressed looking like a bat is often explained by characters as jumping onto the roof. Perhaps she got some of her own inspiration from the tales of Spring-Heeled Jack.
There’s also a channel called Weird History, oh and another called Nutty History and they’ve got loads of Victorian Era videos which are really interesting to watch.
First time I've heard of Spring-Heeled Jack was from playing Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. It was a side mission and it's one of my favorite missions in the game. The game leans more toward the "Some things are better off left as legends" logic, but it's interesting to think that there was in fact a maniac running around doing all this stuff.
If I remember correctly, this was likely a bunch of rich heirs. They were known to go out and beat the hell of plebs and assault women for fun. They had little gangs. There was some evidence that pointed to one in particular. Mystery solved. (I haven't watched enough of the video to know if he mentioned this lol)
@@joescott thanks for the reply! I love your channel! I actually searched my book shelf a little but couldn't find anything. I believe it was either "horrible histories - vile Victorians" or "villainous Victorians"
I read about Spring Heeled Jack as a little kid in the Readers Digest - Book of Strange Stories/Amazing Facts at my Nan's house when I was growing up, freaked me out and stuck in my head every since!
I am absolutely fascinated by the story of Spring-Heeled Jack. I first read about him in a weird book I found at the thrift store (which also featured stories such as an autistic teenager who levitated, a witch who predicted the world would end in 2061, and a ghost that Telly Savalas met once). Idk why but SHJ is an amazing historical character/concept and I wonder if a movie will ever be made about Jack. I was going to write a screenplay about him myself. Maybe I still will lol.
Nice discussion. Though I would quibble with your postulation of the fast rise of technology in 1800s England leading to the extreme class division of the Victorian era. Class division has existed in England for over 1000 years. What we probably witnessed was the extremes of England's class divisions brought together in proximity making obvious how extreme the divisions always were. Take the living conditions of a few million poor people from the country and put them right next to the living conditions of the top 10,000 or so wealthiest people and the contrast looks pretty stark.
Not really. Poor peasants and kings used to have much closer living standards before the Industrial Revolution. Only difference was power, who was serving whom sort of thing. But the creation of urban, industrial cities that lacked the amenities of the countryside plummeted the living standards for those who can't afford to keep it up (heck, the rich also suffered from the pollution and crap urban planning but they had good homes and could afford to import good food from that same countryside). Hence, creating a huge divide.
@@alalalala57 So all the poor people, fuedal peasants, and those especially when revolts over food prices or shortages and such broke out, weren't starving, lived almost similar to kings?
@@WinstonSmithGPT The industrialists were just the upper tier of the new middle class. They all still longed to be aristocrats who held the political power. And yes, the kings of old had lower living standards than their 19th century offspring, but they still lived far better than the peasant class (kings and their court lived longer, had access to better quality food, materials, etc). And they certainly didn't toil for their meals (or be preyed upon by the ruling class).
@@michaelkeefer5674 If you squint real hard and blur your vision, sure. The social mobility of today is often overlooked. Back then, the top 1% stayed the top 1%, that is no longer true. The top 1% churns, just as all the other percentages do.
if you haven’t, *please* do a video on the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak! How john snow (not that one) used maps and surveys and statistics to discover the infected water was the source of the disease. He narrowed down the spread to a contaminated water pump and stopped the cholera epidemic in Victorian London! It’s a super interesting story, and the push back from parliament was wild. I think you’d tell it great!!!
Flash of Morrissey at 6.48 in reference to “ panic on the streets of London “.a lyric on Panic by The Smiths . On Morrissey’s 1994 album Vauxhall And I he sings a song called Spring Heeled Jim, supposedly based on Spring Heeled Jack .
@@joescott you are truly my favorite person to watch on yt your tangent cams and you random jokes are what makes you a better and more diverse educator on yt i love your video they make my day :) ive been subed since last February and i havnt stopped watching since :)
The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack is a steampunk novel by British writer Mark Hodder the first book in his six-part series of 'Burton & Swinburne' steampunk novels.
"I could do a whole video on how everything in the Victorian era wanted to kill you." I think there are entire UA-cam channels dedicated to that. And more than one podcast.
I remember watching a rather long video on how stairs were so thin and close back then that they killed people constantly. Another about how the most popular fabric at that point caught on fire so easily old people would just burn to death in a matter of minutes from dropping a cigarette. The later is likely responsible for myths of "Spontaneous combustion"
@@joescott I would love to see you do a video on spontaneous combustion and how it was likely caused by a weird adoration of making clothes out of shockingly flammable materials.
Cool... the first I ever heard of "Springheeled Jack" was in a Stephen King short story about a serial killer on a small Maine college campus- and I kinda looked into the original, but this was so much more detailed than what I could find- Thanks, Joe! 😁👍🍿💙💚💛🧡❤
I remember that! I actually wrote a part II to it for a class assignment (we had read short stories and then were tasked with continuing them/providing a different perspective narratively). The short version is the two main characters are now old guys, they hire a detective, and the serial killer is finally put in jail after 40+ years with the detective's help. I might improve on it a bit just for fun; it's quite short.
Excellent essay on a fascinating subject. Minor point from a pedant - the picture of a writer called Burrage you used is the son of the author of 'The Terror of London'. Both Alfred Burrages were writers. Alfred Sherrington Burrage died in 1906. Alfred McLelland Burrage (1889-1956) served in the First World War and wrote a lot of good ghost/horror stories but sfaik nothing about Spring-Heeled Jack.
@ben esterberg Bill Finger is now co-credited with creation of Batman, per legal agreements (just watch the credits on the most recent Batman films) ... but there's substantial evidence that Finger in reality did more than Kane in creating the character at the start.
I remember reading of spring healed jack as a kid from a book my dad had, loved that story, it was very interesting to me and kind of freaked me out, loved the morrisey refference.
This is crazy. I had just finished watching this video when I realised I had more free time, so I went to play Assassin's Creed Syndicate. I loaded up the game (which is set in Victorian London) just to realise that the next level I played was called Spring-heeled Jack. What a coincidence!! Loved the video and thought the game's take on Jack was interesting (that it was a group of cultists).
There’s an old Readers Digest compilation book called “Strange Stories, Amazing Facts” that contains an article about Spring-heeled Jack, and a ton of other interesting tidbits.
I'm from Northamptonshire and didn't know about this. Very interesting! Also loved your pronunciation of Northamptonshire 😄 Love watching these videos while I'm working from home.
So, you have made it to puberty already before you become a slave, but you are working class from birth, yep that makes sense with so much infant death
Living in Victorian housing is still a part of living memory, especially in the north of England. When i grew up the toilet was still outside in a terraced house etc.. etc.. My parents grew having to get there washing done at the local wash house.
Just one note for anyone watching, it's now accepted that Bill Finger is the one who came up with the majority of Batman as we know him. Building off a Bob Kane's name and idea (although his original Batman pitch is very different - look it up). So if anyone was inspired by Spring Heeled Jack it probably would have been him, and it's easy to see the similarities.
That is amazing that that guy survived having his leg blown off with a cannon, especially back then. It always kind of seems like people who are horrible and cause the most suffering, live the longest. In a perfect world that cannon should have been his undoing.
Fun Fact Part Duh. The Duke of Wellington was nicknamed "The Iron Duke" not because of his military prowess, but because of his political resolve, and the fact that he put up iron shutters on his house to keep out the peasants after he became PM. The last bit was popularised by Punch magazine and other satirical publications.
Waukesha is pronounced wah-keh-shaw, not wah-keh-shuh. The "kesha" part of the name is not pronounced like the artist, the "a" at the end makes an awe sound, like in awesome.
You made a pretty good argument for the 1800s as the most transformative. I had always thought the 20th century as the most dramatic advancement period in our history, but I'm curious to see which century people generally see as the most transformational...
"Panic on the streets of London" is a lyric from a song called Panic by The Smiths. The picture is of Morrissey, the lead singer. I'd never heard of Brendon Urie before now, and seemed to come to US prominence after The Smiths/Morrissey found fame. The resemblance is however remarkable, perhaps even fashioned after Morrissey?
I really appreciated this video. It was super entertaining and very informative. I always thought Spring-Heeled Jack was just a fictional character from the Penny Dreadfuls( Precursor to comic books.) But according to these accounts he was in fact a real person. I find all of it super fascinating.
Last Poscast on the Left has an excellent episode featuring spring heel jack. One of the hosts, Henry, character voice acting for the role is absolutely f'ing hilarious
Could this be the origin of the old yarn in which "Jack" is a hero, using his agility to escape some predicament? The story goes that a serial writer of Victorian "penny dreadfuls" penned an extreme cliff-hanger for the hero. There are several versions: he is chained to a chair in a cellar that's being flooded and the water is rising up to his throat; he is tied to stake, being circled by hungry lions, in the path of a huge river of lava from an erupting volcano. You get the idea. But the writer is then hit by a car - and the publisher is desperate: no one can come up with a believable solution! At the last moment, the original writer walks in (having made a remarkable recovery). He calmly sits down at his typewriter and writes: *"With one bound, Jack was free."*
@@winklerchr yeah but I've heard how you guys pronounce those same city names. They're your city's pronounce them however you like but just know it sounds nothing like the original
Throwing poop out of my window is something I regret I missed out on. I was born in the wrong era for sure. Also slavery and widespread poverty... good times... *sigh*
i always been obsessed with s h jack and thought the cloven hoof night were the same,thanks for this great info,as an artist and writer of short batman storys ,you have just inspired something great and i promise to send u a copy first my friend x
In early 2001, there's was a rumour scattered around in India about a monkey with same attributes you just described and coincidentally newspaper called it "spring heel jack/monkey" or something like that. People were horrified of sleeping in open places because of that. That rumour lasted for almost a year. I wonder if they named it after him. I was just a kid back then and I remember sitting in a group of teenagers and kids, talking about it at night after dinner in our locality. Edit : after watching this, did some Google search, and look what I found mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/04/spring-heeled-jack-and-the-monkey-man-parallels-between-panics/ For some reference - www.theguardian.com/world/2001/may/18/lukeharding
I've always been extremely fascinated by the amount of change that happened in the 20th century. Now I want to learn more about the changes that took place throughout the 19th century.
All hail the shape-shifting, fire-breathing, razor-fingered demon who's terrified of seizures and doesn't realize his claws are too sharp to be tickling people.
A lot of fantasy RPG games have an item called 'Spring-Heel boots', they're also an item found in Dungeons & Dragons. Even in our modern age, Spring-Heel Jack inspires us.
"You could not approach someone... who was in a higher station than you... you could go to jail for that." Do you have a source of that claim? Yes, class structures were pretty rigid, and there was a minefield of etiquette. And I could well believe that if a member of the aristocracy considered someone of the lower orders to have behaved impertinently, then that person might get roughed up by the nob's servants. But I've read a fair amount of British history and historical fiction, and never come across a claim that there any legal (rather than social) restrictions on interaction between the classes.
The FIRST description of an attacker's with "springs" in his boots was January 1826, by a shop keeper who witnessed a 10 foot leap. This was over ELEVEN YEARS before the 1837 account of Poly Adams.
When I was about 15, I started to collect a bi-weekly publication (one of those which were prevalent at the time) called 'The Unexplained'. Spring-heeled Jack was one of the stories in the first issue and what you refer to as 'blue flame' was originally reported as people's faces being thrashed with Holly or Rose stems. I don't know where you got the blue flame thing from, but that was never part of the original SHJ reports; at least, as far as my information goes...
Calling someone that literally cut people up a “prankster“ seems a bit of a stretch. Assault and battery really goes a quite bit beyond a prank. But of course it was just women that were being assaulted and sliced up, so well, I guess that’s the explanation why it’s just a prank.
It's still, by the very definition, a prankster. Assault, battery, and other actions are simply possible actions used to prank. Nothing about the word implies that it can't be a physical action. Hell, just watch Jackass. Furthermore, assault isn't physical to begin with. Many pranks could easily be classified as assault. I think you're making some assumption that a prank is something innocent and while it can be it most certainly isn't limited to that.
@@ericalbers4867 pranks are generally considered to be simple tricks or mischievous acts not criminal assault. The current oxford definition that I saw said it is a trick or mischievous act. As a verb they said it is a trick or practical joke. I see assault and battery is being something quite more serious than a simple mischievous act. Otherwise it wouldn’t be called assault and battery it would be called mischievous mischief unless you’re suggesting that these acts were just simply cases of mischievous mischief. Oops I stabbed you it’s just a trick I was just being silly and mischievous. Yeah try telling that to the judge. As for the television show jackass I think the name says it all I’ll leave it at that.
@@pjschmid2251 mischievous: (of an action or thing) causing or intended to cause harm or trouble. I'd say the word "prankster" applies. Given part of it's definition includes mischievous acts. I consider it irrelevant if some people thing it's an innocent act. People also think "terrific" means something great when that's the complete opposite of what it means. Same with inflammable not meaning "can't burn". People use words incorrectly by not knowing the definition then others who are ignorant of it as well do the same. That doesn't make them correct.
I think Spring Heeled Jack has been stated to be part of the inspiration for corvo. Might even be a reference or two in the game. Good to see dishonored hasn’t been forgotten.
In the video game Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, there’s an item called the “Boots of Springheel Jak [sic]” that boosts your “acrobatics” skill, letting you jump higher and fall a long distance without getting hurt. :)
That’s awesome I love when games do that
Yes , also to get them you have to kill the owner of the boots who is an ancient aristocrat vampire who probably preys on the citizens of imperial city .
@@chosenone6158 lol. It’s been a minute since I played; that’s hilarious!
Funny enough i was just about to say this myself!!
The mission you get them in is by far the best mission in the game as well. Its a shame you have to break them though when you complete it
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jumped over the candlestick.
Good point !
In primary school, we used to extend this rhyme,
Jack be nimble,
Jack be quick,
Jack jumped over
the candle stick
and burnt his
peepee*
*=Except that it rhymed
@@razeezar In England we say
Jack be nimble
Jack be quick
Jack jumped over
The candlestick
Jack should have jumped a little higher
Goodness gracious
Great balls of fire 🔥
@@keithe8449 I wonder what it’s like to live in England, it fascinates me
@@KC-nm7mf It isn't perfect but still a great country
"Luckily life-spans were incredibly short."
That one got me.
Me too!
Sounds like you maybe are going through a lot right now too. It isn't true that all lives were short back then. People who managed to live past the average age of death often lived much longer. Today it is people who manage to live past the age of 65 who end up living a lot longer. Which is why now that there is a whole lot more of us compared to young people employers need to start considering to hire us and more women in some occupations too so that those of us with less resources to do so can contribute more to the welfare of others too. Otherwise there will be another generation again in which people over the age of 90 are almost all only women. There is no excuse not to anymore with so much more automation and much better applications of mechanical means to get more foot pounds done.
Reincarnation enters the chat!
@@francesbernard2445 I actually meant it made me laugh....
@@francesbernard2445 I'm... so confused
My great grandmother lived like this:
As a child they used a horse drawn wagon to buy food at the local market and sometimes drove it the next big city - like every 2 month or so. There were no automobiles.
She lived on to see people walking on the moon at the end of her life.
Just image what she thought would be possible in one more lifetime... but no, we now just play candy crush on small miracle machines we put in our pockets.
"luckily, life spans were incredibly short." I can always count on Joe to find the silver lining
"Always look on the bright side of life..." 🎶
Actually, this in itself is a bit of an urban myth. *Infant and childhood mortality threw the statistics off WILDLY* . IF you could make it through your first three years of life, then you had a much better chance of survival. Then if you could make it out of your childhood to adulthood. After that, lifespans were not dissimilar to what they are now. Of course, there was no modern medicine, nor antibiotics: and moving to crowded cities for work, that didn't yet have sewerage systems, caused epidemics. 😏
Actually, this in itself is a bit of an urban myth. *Infant and childhood mortality threw the statistics off WILDLY* . IF you could make it through your first three years of life, then you had a much better chance of survival. Then if you could make it out of your childhood to adulthood. After that, lifespans were not dissimilar to what they are now. Of course, there was no modern medicine, nor antibiotics: and moving to crowded cities for work, that didn't yet have sewerage systems, caused epidemics. 😏
Silver lining… you mean like in that line of Mack Weldon underwear? :0
@@joescott especially if it's extra short
The comic-book Batman was influenced by Mary Robert Rinehart's 1920 play, "The Bat" (based on her 1908 novel, "The Circular Staircase), where a robber dressed looking like a bat is often explained by characters as jumping onto the roof. Perhaps she got some of her own inspiration from the tales of Spring-Heeled Jack.
"I could do a whole video on how everything in the Victorian Era wanted to kill you."
...yes, please!
There's a BBC video series about that and it's on YT. Called something like deadly victorian homes or something similar
@@masstv9052 I'd prefer a Joe Scott version, tbh. ❤️
WELP
I for one would absolutely watch that 😊
There’s also a channel called Weird History, oh and another called Nutty History and they’ve got loads of Victorian Era videos which are really interesting to watch.
10:28 can we talk about this drawings of human faces? That's some seriously crazy good portraits someone made there, just with a fine liner.
First time I've heard of Spring-Heeled Jack was from playing Assassin's Creed: Syndicate. It was a side mission and it's one of my favorite missions in the game. The game leans more toward the "Some things are better off left as legends" logic, but it's interesting to think that there was in fact a maniac running around doing all this stuff.
Stories about Spring Heel Jack were going around Liverpool when I was growing up in the 1950's. Interesting to hear the research. Cheers.
That one girl that got stabbed 19 times in the into SURVIVED by the way
Wow
And one of the girls who stabbed her just got her release papers last week.
It's just a prank bro.. oh wait.
Holy shit what a champion, that’s fantastic
Yo that makes me feel so much better
The Marquess of Waterford sounds like the original Florida Man
I think I saw him once
"I could do a whole video about how..."
Well, we're waiting.
There's a BBC series about that.
(Hidden Killers of theVictorian Home) etc
@@lutello3012 Sure, but I think most people here would like the condensed information you get with Joe :-)
@@lutello3012 the entire series is available on the UA-cam channel Absolute history.
The BBC series is pretty concise.
@@Pysslis That channel is highly reccomended.
He sounds like a mix of Batman and the joker put together, essentially a rich guy who instead of helping the poor just terrorizes for the sake of it
I remember reading about him in a horrible histories book and being terrified!
If I remember correctly, this was likely a bunch of rich heirs. They were known to go out and beat the hell of plebs and assault women for fun. They had little gangs. There was some evidence that pointed to one in particular. Mystery solved. (I haven't watched enough of the video to know if he mentioned this lol)
I found a book of Penny Dreadfuls for this video and then didn't get a chance to read it before making this. :)
@@joescott thanks for the reply! I love your channel! I actually searched my book shelf a little but couldn't find anything. I believe it was either "horrible histories - vile Victorians" or "villainous Victorians"
I read about Spring Heeled Jack as a little kid in the Readers Digest - Book of Strange Stories/Amazing Facts at my Nan's house when I was growing up, freaked me out and stuck in my head every since!
@@Fren69420 but i wonder how they could jump a 9 ft walls, and leap over walls
Great video, and loved the blink-and-you'll-miss-it Smiths reference, which is doubly relevant as Morrissey has a song called Spring Heeled Jack.
I did a half-blink and had to go back to see what it was. Glad someone else caught it too.
Not to be an annoyance on behalf of middling details, but Morrissey's song is called "Spring Heeled Jim", not Jack.
My work here is done.
What I have learned today: Don't name your child Jack if you live in London
Also, if you meet a friend named Jack on an aeroplane, do NOT call out "Hi Jack!"
@@BertGrink nice
Jack London. He actually traveled to London to live among the homeless. «The People of the Abyss», (1903).
Jack the ripper and stripper and spring heeled all lived in London
*insert Jack Manifold joke*
Yes! I was waiting for you to cover him! Spring-heeled Jack usually gets forgotten
The first MIB movie started with Will Smith chasing Spring Heeled Jack 😂
😂🤣
Mind blown
🤣🤣🤣
Must of casted chris rock to play jack too
@@anthonycromwell4292 keep my wife's name out yo fucking mouth!!!
I am absolutely fascinated by the story of Spring-Heeled Jack. I first read about him in a weird book I found at the thrift store (which also featured stories such as an autistic teenager who levitated, a witch who predicted the world would end in 2061, and a ghost that Telly Savalas met once). Idk why but SHJ is an amazing historical character/concept and I wonder if a movie will ever be made about Jack. I was going to write a screenplay about him myself. Maybe I still will lol.
Wow... I feel like I never get to do this
I think I might mess it up
*clears throat*
FIRST!
I always believed in you.
mmmmk, I see how it is, lol*
One blighter claimed FIST! on another channel here on UA-cam. The responses were predictable.
Texans and Wisconsin city names. Always fun. I needed the smile. Thanks!
Nice discussion. Though I would quibble with your postulation of the fast rise of technology in 1800s England leading to the extreme class division of the Victorian era. Class division has existed in England for over 1000 years. What we probably witnessed was the extremes of England's class divisions brought together in proximity making obvious how extreme the divisions always were. Take the living conditions of a few million poor people from the country and put them right next to the living conditions of the top 10,000 or so wealthiest people and the contrast looks pretty stark.
Not really. Poor peasants and kings used to have much closer living standards before the Industrial Revolution. Only difference was power, who was serving whom sort of thing. But the creation of urban, industrial cities that lacked the amenities of the countryside plummeted the living standards for those who can't afford to keep it up (heck, the rich also suffered from the pollution and crap urban planning but they had good homes and could afford to import good food from that same countryside). Hence, creating a huge divide.
@@alalalala57 So all the poor people, fuedal peasants, and those especially when revolts over food prices or shortages and such broke out, weren't starving, lived almost similar to kings?
@@WinstonSmithGPT The industrialists were just the upper tier of the new middle class. They all still longed to be aristocrats who held the political power. And yes, the kings of old had lower living standards than their 19th century offspring, but they still lived far better than the peasant class (kings and their court lived longer, had access to better quality food, materials, etc). And they certainly didn't toil for their meals (or be preyed upon by the ruling class).
Kind of like the top 1% in America today, verses the lower 99%.
@@michaelkeefer5674 If you squint real hard and blur your vision, sure. The social mobility of today is often overlooked. Back then, the top 1% stayed the top 1%, that is no longer true. The top 1% churns, just as all the other percentages do.
if you haven’t, *please* do a video on the 1854 Broad Street cholera outbreak! How john snow (not that one) used maps and surveys and statistics to discover the infected water was the source of the disease. He narrowed down the spread to a contaminated water pump and stopped the cholera epidemic in Victorian London! It’s a super interesting story, and the push back from parliament was wild. I think you’d tell it great!!!
You do know something, Dr John Snow.
Flash of Morrissey at 6.48 in reference to “ panic on the streets of London “.a lyric on Panic by The Smiths . On Morrissey’s 1994 album Vauxhall And I he sings a song called Spring Heeled Jim, supposedly based on Spring Heeled Jack .
👏I was looking down here to see if anyone else caught that
@@michaelblaine6494 same!
We all love you too Joe. Keep doing what you're doing!
Joe, this was an absolutely delightful episode and I enjoyed every minute of it. As always, thank you for the great work! 😊
Thanks so much!
@@joescott you are truly my favorite person to watch on yt your tangent cams and you random jokes are what makes you a better and more diverse educator on yt i love your video they make my day :) ive been subed since last February and i havnt stopped watching since :)
The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack is a steampunk novel by British writer Mark Hodder the first book in his six-part series of 'Burton & Swinburne' steampunk novels.
I recently finished part 5 of the series and I was surprised at your comment because it's a rare occurrence to see someone talk about it. :D
"I could do a whole video on how everything in the Victorian era wanted to kill you." I think there are entire UA-cam channels dedicated to that. And more than one podcast.
I remember watching a rather long video on how stairs were so thin and close back then that they killed people constantly. Another about how the most popular fabric at that point caught on fire so easily old people would just burn to death in a matter of minutes from dropping a cigarette. The later is likely responsible for myths of "Spontaneous combustion"
@@ThrottleKitty They also put arsenic in their wallpaper.
@@LG123ABC Certain green fabric dyes were made with arsenic too.
And they're super interesting.
@@joescott I would love to see you do a video on spontaneous combustion and how it was likely caused by a weird adoration of making clothes out of shockingly flammable materials.
That transition to the promo was spot on. Well done.
Cool... the first I ever heard of "Springheeled Jack" was in a Stephen King short story about a serial killer on a small Maine college campus- and I kinda looked into the original, but this was so much more detailed than what I could find- Thanks, Joe! 😁👍🍿💙💚💛🧡❤
A Stephen King story about a serial killer in Maine? Now I've heard everything.
I remember that! I actually wrote a part II to it for a class assignment (we had read short stories and then were tasked with continuing them/providing a different perspective narratively). The short version is the two main characters are now old guys, they hire a detective, and the serial killer is finally put in jail after 40+ years with the detective's help. I might improve on it a bit just for fun; it's quite short.
"Strawberry Spring" is excellent. That's where I first heard of Spring-Heeled Jack, too.
Thanks, Jack!
It
That ad transition was top quality notch my dude! Splendid.
Spring-Heeled Jack legit sounds like he could be a Bloodborne Boss
I knew I wasn't the only one getting bloodborne vibes
There's a vampire in TES 4 named Springheel Jak
@@A_Salty_Fishe you can get his boots somewhere in game as well.
There isn't enough blood though
Father Gausston anyone.
I never get tired of your videos
Perfect video to watch at 11pm on a Monday night whilst about to go to sleep.
Just turned midnight here in Australia :) bless Joe for putting this up now!
This was my morning wake up and get ready video. Always start your week with Joe :))
It's only 3.15pm in uk
It's only 3.15pm in uk
Excellent essay on a fascinating subject. Minor point from a pedant - the picture of a writer called Burrage you used is the son of the author of 'The Terror of London'. Both Alfred Burrages were writers. Alfred Sherrington Burrage died in 1906. Alfred McLelland Burrage (1889-1956) served in the First World War and wrote a lot of good ghost/horror stories but sfaik nothing about Spring-Heeled Jack.
I feel like you’re firing on all cylinders with this one. The script seems *quite* polished!
🙂
Agree!
I wonder who wrote it🤔
Absolutely! Joe just keeps getting better!!!
Awe, thanks! It's an interesting story for sure.
That was fun Joe and a smooth transition at the end. 👍
He influenced Bob Kane 0%. Bill Finger on the other hand...
They got off on the wrong foot.
@ben esterberg Bill Finger is now co-credited with creation of Batman, per legal agreements (just watch the credits on the most recent Batman films) ... but there's substantial evidence that Finger in reality did more than Kane in creating the character at the start.
Most of the ideas around Batman were from Bill Finger. Bob Kane did sod all.
THANK YOU. I was just about to comment something of this sort. Bob Kane was a thief.
I remember reading of spring healed jack as a kid from a book my dad had, loved that story, it was very interesting to me and kind of freaked me out, loved the morrisey refference.
15:52 It’s important to include Bill Finger as well, since it was his Batman design and not Kane’s that was used!
It’s unfortunate he doesn’t get as much recognition as he deserves.
Batman wouldn’t exist as we know him if it wasn’t for Bill Finger. I wonder if he might have been aware of Spring hill Jack
This is crazy. I had just finished watching this video when I realised I had more free time, so I went to play Assassin's Creed Syndicate. I loaded up the game (which is set in Victorian London) just to realise that the next level I played was called Spring-heeled Jack. What a coincidence!! Loved the video and thought the game's take on Jack was interesting (that it was a group of cultists).
There’s an old Readers Digest compilation book called “Strange Stories, Amazing Facts” that contains an article about Spring-heeled Jack, and a ton of other interesting tidbits.
I used to have that book when I was a kid. Used to love reading that.
I just left a comment and cited that very book too, loved that book.
yeah that book was great - heaps of scary stuff in it
I already knew all about spring Hill Jack but his videos are just so interesting to watch
I once owned the boots of spring heel jack. They saved me from a really long fall.
Never forget
Oh, so you’re that guy!
came in handy in quake deathmatches... no more taking damage doing rocket jumps
Me too!!
I'm from Northamptonshire and didn't know about this. Very interesting! Also loved your pronunciation of Northamptonshire 😄 Love watching these videos while I'm working from home.
FUN FACT: In the mid 1800's, working class Londoners had a shorter life expectancy than slaves
how fun
@@eyes5226 The Industrial Revolution sucked balls for ordinary people lol.
@@eyes5226 my reaction exactly haha 😅
So, you have made it to puberty already before you become a slave, but you are working class from birth, yep that makes sense with so much infant death
Is that Lord Lucan?
Living in Victorian housing is still a part of living memory, especially in the north of England. When i grew up the toilet was still outside in a terraced house etc.. etc.. My parents grew having to get there washing done at the local wash house.
Just one note for anyone watching, it's now accepted that Bill Finger is the one who came up with the majority of Batman as we know him. Building off a Bob Kane's name and idea (although his original Batman pitch is very different - look it up). So if anyone was inspired by Spring Heeled Jack it probably would have been him, and it's easy to see the similarities.
That is amazing that that guy survived having his leg blown off with a cannon, especially back then. It always kind of seems like people who are horrible and cause the most suffering, live the longest. In a perfect world that cannon should have been his undoing.
Fun Fact Part Duh. The Duke of Wellington was nicknamed "The Iron Duke" not because of his military prowess, but because of his political resolve, and the fact that he put up iron shutters on his house to keep out the peasants after he became PM. The last bit was popularised by Punch magazine and other satirical publications.
Nice Travelin Jack reference! Played a festival with them in 2015. Great band and Flö is a killer tattoo artist.
Waukesha is pronounced wah-keh-shaw, not wah-keh-shuh. The "kesha" part of the name is not pronounced like the artist, the "a" at the end makes an awe sound, like in awesome.
As someone who lives very close to Waukesha, WI it's pronounced.
WA-Ka-SHAW.
Been dying for the last few minutes 😂😂
And while we’re about it Teignmouth in Devon is pronounced “tin-mouth”
glad to see i wasn't the first wisconsinite to catch this
@@kernowboy137 it's tine-muth, not tin mouth.
hello, fellow Wisconsinite, who also dies a little inside every time someone butchers WI names lol
These videos are so interesting. Scientific but with a touch of “out there”. Thank you!
mad to hear the tiny town of aldershot (neighbouring town to where I grew up) in a Joe Scott video!!
Cool. I always wondered if Spring Heeled Jack was inspiration for Batman.
I had no idea... I never thought about Jack being the inspiration for Batman. The Mo' Yo' Kno'
Almost like a cross between Batman and the Joker.
To the spring boots “bamananana”
You made a pretty good argument for the 1800s as the most transformative. I had always thought the 20th century as the most dramatic advancement period in our history, but I'm curious to see which century people generally see as the most transformational...
"Causing panic..."
*Brendon Urie photo pops up*
It got me good haha
Is that who it is, I thought it looked like him but wasn't sure
"Panic on the streets of London" is a lyric from a song called Panic by The Smiths. The picture is of Morrissey, the lead singer. I'd never heard of Brendon Urie before now, and seemed to come to US prominence after The Smiths/Morrissey found fame. The resemblance is however remarkable, perhaps even fashioned after Morrissey?
He clawed his way out of our eyes and into our hearts
_"...if you've seen that show Glee, I mean that's kind of understandable."_
😊😊😊
6:48 Nicely timed little subliminal morrisey there.
The way he pronounced Waukesha lmao
Wau-keh-shaw, not wah-kesha
I thought it was Wauk-eh-shaw. How do you say - Milwaukee? How about Wisconsin?
@@kainwi "Mil waa key"
Isn't it spelled Wauke$ha?
Thank you my fellow Sconnies!!!
Loved the video, and really LOVED the advert at the end!
I really appreciated this video. It was super entertaining and very informative. I always thought Spring-Heeled Jack was just a fictional character from the Penny Dreadfuls( Precursor to comic books.) But according to these accounts he was in fact a real person. I find all of it super fascinating.
Last Poscast on the Left has an excellent episode featuring spring heel jack. One of the hosts, Henry, character voice acting for the role is absolutely f'ing hilarious
“Jackulated action”
Well played Joe….welll playeddddd
I believe it was "jack-related action".
...
Yeah that's not any better.
@@joescott well that clears up a confusion, but I do have to agree, jack-related action is only slightly better than jackulated action
It was a tree climbing velociraptor coming trough a anomaly from cretacic period , you didn't watch primeval TV series?
You just took me back in time
Holy shit
I remember Primeval! good times
I don't but I'm gonna go find that sh!t now.
🙄 Maybe it got there via Dr Who's TARDIS?
Enjoyed this quite a bit! thanks!
I love content like this, and this video was so well done! Great Job!
Legendary ad transition, Joe. Well done.
Though I like your science vids, I'm really happy to see you dipping back into oddball stories like this! Thanks
Glad I found your channel. Really interesting stuff!
“Slippity slap, and away I go!”
- Spring Heeled Jack
WOW.. that transition into Mack Weldon sold me
Could this be the origin of the old yarn in which "Jack" is a hero, using his agility to escape some predicament? The story goes that a serial writer of Victorian "penny dreadfuls" penned an extreme cliff-hanger for the hero. There are several versions: he is chained to a chair in a cellar that's being flooded and the water is rising up to his throat; he is tied to stake, being circled by hungry lions, in the path of a huge river of lava from an erupting volcano. You get the idea. But the writer is then hit by a car - and the publisher is desperate: no one can come up with a believable solution! At the last moment, the original writer walks in (having made a remarkable recovery). He calmly sits down at his typewriter and writes:
*"With one bound, Jack was free."*
Publisher: >facepalm<
Superheroes are easy to write 🤣
This comment was a big cliffhanger, until it turned into the worst kinda prank.
I believe that was based on Jack shepherd Theif of pre Victorian London look him up. Jack Rackham has a good video on him on here.
How have I never heard of this? It’s so crazy and amazing!
The Dark Jack trilogy. LOL
Also never say hi to a Jack in an airplane.
Why
Good one!
All right! ONOTHER bad ass video from Joe Scott.
Non-Wisconsin residents can never pronounce Wisconsin cities correctly. Love it.
Lol wau-ke$ha
Wisconsin is the UK of USA
@@benjabin6729 New England has those same stupid city names, so, no.
@@winklerchr yeah but I've heard how you guys pronounce those same city names. They're your city's pronounce them however you like but just know it sounds nothing like the original
The Blackheath attack was during the annual fair, held on the Common just outside the village itself. Several other attacks were also on open Commons.
Throwing poop out of my window is something I regret I missed out on. I was born in the wrong era for sure. Also slavery and widespread poverty... good times... *sigh*
Oh you're still in the correct generation. You just need to move to one of the poor countries, which are still the norm not the exception. :)))
I'd wrap it on a McD paper bag before threw it out of the window.
I hope your being sarcastic about the slavery eh
Just buy your own house.
The past was the worst!
i always been obsessed with s h jack and thought the cloven hoof night were the same,thanks for this great info,as an artist and writer of short batman storys ,you have just inspired something great and i promise to send u a copy first my friend x
In early 2001, there's was a rumour scattered around in India about a monkey with same attributes you just described and coincidentally newspaper called it "spring heel jack/monkey" or something like that. People were horrified of sleeping in open places because of that. That rumour lasted for almost a year. I wonder if they named it after him. I was just a kid back then and I remember sitting in a group of teenagers and kids, talking about it at night after dinner in our locality.
Edit : after watching this, did some Google search, and look what I found mysteriousuniverse.org/2016/04/spring-heeled-jack-and-the-monkey-man-parallels-between-panics/
For some reference - www.theguardian.com/world/2001/may/18/lukeharding
I've always been extremely fascinated by the amount of change that happened in the 20th century. Now I want to learn more about the changes that took place throughout the 19th century.
Wow,
That was a GREAT segue.
Great video too, of course.
I live in Teignmouth and this is the first I’ve heard of Springhealed Jack being seen here. Very funny
All hail the shape-shifting, fire-breathing, razor-fingered demon who's terrified of seizures and doesn't realize his claws are too sharp to be tickling people.
Spring-heeled Jack was also quite a dope Drum & Bass project from the 90's.
The only thing I know about Springheel Jack is that his boots increase my acrobatics skill
Boots of striding and springing?
6:16 That perfectly describes many a night in my 20s
"Interacting with anybody could be a social minefield" sounds like today
*cough* Twitter
Are you assuming my gender?
Even when you not directly
@@Quickcat21MK How did you talk about that here?
Yes, but also social interaction can be quite pleasant.
A lot of fantasy RPG games have an item called 'Spring-Heel boots', they're also an item found in Dungeons & Dragons. Even in our modern age, Spring-Heel Jack inspires us.
"You could not approach someone... who was in a higher station than you... you could go to jail for that."
Do you have a source of that claim? Yes, class structures were pretty rigid, and there was a minefield of etiquette. And I could well believe that if a member of the aristocracy considered someone of the lower orders to have behaved impertinently, then that person might get roughed up by the nob's servants. But I've read a fair amount of British history and historical fiction, and never come across a claim that there any legal (rather than social) restrictions on interaction between the classes.
The FIRST description of an attacker's with "springs" in his boots was January 1826, by a shop keeper who witnessed a 10 foot leap. This was over ELEVEN YEARS before the 1837 account of Poly Adams.
I liked the Smiths reference snuck in there
When I was about 15, I started to collect a bi-weekly publication (one of those which were prevalent at the time) called 'The Unexplained'. Spring-heeled Jack was one of the stories in the first issue and what you refer to as 'blue flame' was originally reported as people's faces being thrashed with Holly or Rose stems. I don't know where you got the blue flame thing from, but that was never part of the original SHJ reports; at least, as far as my information goes...
Calling someone that literally cut people up a “prankster“ seems a bit of a stretch. Assault and battery really goes a quite bit beyond a prank. But of course it was just women that were being assaulted and sliced up, so well, I guess that’s the explanation why it’s just a prank.
"ITS JUST A PRANK BRO LOL" **stabs a few more times**
It's still, by the very definition, a prankster. Assault, battery, and other actions are simply possible actions used to prank. Nothing about the word implies that it can't be a physical action. Hell, just watch Jackass. Furthermore, assault isn't physical to begin with. Many pranks could easily be classified as assault. I think you're making some assumption that a prank is something innocent and while it can be it most certainly isn't limited to that.
@@ericalbers4867 pranks are generally considered to be simple tricks or mischievous acts not criminal assault. The current oxford definition that I saw said it is a trick or mischievous act. As a verb they said it is a trick or practical joke. I see assault and battery is being something quite more serious than a simple mischievous act. Otherwise it wouldn’t be called assault and battery it would be called mischievous mischief unless you’re suggesting that these acts were just simply cases of mischievous mischief. Oops I stabbed you it’s just a trick I was just being silly and mischievous. Yeah try telling that to the judge. As for the television show jackass I think the name says it all I’ll leave it at that.
@@pjschmid2251 mischievous: (of an action or thing) causing or intended to cause harm or trouble.
I'd say the word "prankster" applies. Given part of it's definition includes mischievous acts. I consider it irrelevant if some people thing it's an innocent act. People also think "terrific" means something great when that's the complete opposite of what it means. Same with inflammable not meaning "can't burn". People use words incorrectly by not knowing the definition then others who are ignorant of it as well do the same. That doesn't make them correct.
The past was the worst.
I live in Wisconsin. Wah-kuh-shaw. You’re welcome.
Sounds like something straight out of dishonoured. Corvo had his chaos run 😂
I think Spring Heeled Jack has been stated to be part of the inspiration for corvo. Might even be a reference or two in the game. Good to see dishonored hasn’t been forgotten.
@@Splatterbrain7 indeed friend. I recently played 1 and 2 again, so they were fresh on my memory.