Weird, True & Freaky

Weird, True & Freaky is a television show on Animal Planet. I recently watched two episodes of it. Personally I don't find the show to be very interesting. The first episode I watched showed animal birth defects, mutations and biological animal oddities. If you like seeing weird things you'd probably like this show. I didn't really like it since I do not really like seeing animal oddities put on display. The show would have been more interesting had it been more about the science as to why and less on how the animals look. Of course seeing these (which I have seen before) makes it easy to see where myths on cyclops (they showed a cyclops pig) and creatures like the Hydra (snakes with more than one head) came from.

The second episode was more interesting than the first one I saw. In it they showed people eating various animals usually not thought of as food (at least in the targeted audiences point of view). I already knew people eat weird things. This is also a matter of personal opinion and social mores. The show, showed people eating things like rats, insects, scorpions, snakes, etc. Really not that weird. Many things that can be found in the USA are just as weird. There is even a club, Explorers club, that meets annually and eats weird foods, like roaches. I had read a short story about a more diabolical version of them before with them eating a phoenix but no longer can remember who wrote that.

Many things that people eat; other people would consider weird or disgusting. Japanese Shashimi -raw fish, the Koreans eat live still living octopus (which is not common in Japan - they eat it raw but kill it first), Insects in chocolate or hard candy can be found in some stores here in the USA, the French eat snails, English eat blood pudding, and the Scottish eat haggis all of which many people in the USA would consider weird/disgusting foods.

Some of the things seen in the Ranma manga would have been able to have been put on this show. One such example is mamushi-zake (snake in drink). Ranma's clone in the mirror arc has this. Mamushi-zake is an old folk remedy made by soaking a mamushi (snake) in sake or other alcoholic beverage for about a year. The snake can be used three times traditionally. It is said that this drink increases male sexual stamina. There are other foods seen that maybe considered weird but that is all a matter of opinion -like Takoyaki which is balls of fried or baked, diced or whole baby octopus. Which Ranma and Genma fight over in the story arc in which Akane's body is taken over by a vengeance doll.