Friday, October 20, 2023

Urban Legends: Hippo Eats Dwarf

Image belongs to Stephan Steinbauer

In 1988 The National Lampoon Magazine would post an article. In the article, an Austrian circus dwarf would die in front of 7,000 people. Franz Dasch was jumping on the trampoline for the show but accidentally went sideways. He landed in the mouth of Hilda the Hippo, and because of the animal's gag reflex, she swallowed him. This horrified others who were in the circus, but the crowd cheered and clapped thinking it was a part of the show. The magazine would claim that they had gotten the article from the Las Vegas Sun. This would begin to spread around.

The thing is, this story was made up. In the 1990's this same story appeared again, but this time it happened to a Thailand performer called Od. Newpapers would start posting this story as truth, being tricked. This urban legend would then be spread about and believed.

SOURCES:
Snopes
Wikipedia

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