Duck and Cover is one of the most misunderstood things ever, and a lot of people really haven't researched the Civil Defense films made by the US during the Cold War and thus think "wow, Duck and Cover is really stupid, our government must really think we're a bunch of morons to fall for something so naiive and ridiculous." The government (and most American adults) knew about nuclear fallout, and the USCDA had plenty of films distributed to the public discussing it in substantial detail. It also knew people and kids would have to do more to survive a nuclear war than hide under their desks, and makes that clear in many other films. The government made many civil defense videos very similar in scope to the UKWMO Protect and Survive series. The reason D&C doesn't go into detail is because it was meant to be shown to children, who were assumed to be unable to process enough information in a state of great terror to be able to act rationally so the message given to them was to be as simple and understandable as possible. First, the USCDA knew that many would die. Within a few miles of a nuclear explosion, everybody would. But, several miles away, many people would be close enough to get hurt if they didn't find some kind of hasty protection from the flash and blast, but far enough away to survive with minimal injuries if they took hid from flying debris and high temp flash. Fallout and radiation would not hit for up to thirty minutes, so they would have just enough time to hide, and after the initial heat and blast, would be able to head for a fallout shelter. The idea of D&C was to keep little kids from curiously looking out the window at a far-away nuclear blast and thus not get burned by the initial high temperature flash nor turned to mincemeat by flying glass shrapnel and debris from the room during the overpressure wave of a nuclear explosion. Teachers were to know what to do next. Basically, the USCDA hoped that all kids would have to know is to duck under their desks, which would protect them from high-velocity shrapnel and debris, and the teachers, educated on more serious and lengthy civil defense training films, would then immediately evacuate them to a thick-walled, concrete fallout shelter stocked with a couple weeks' supply of water and food. Keep in mind, back then school desks were often bolted to the floor and made of metal. They weren't the kinds of lightweight portable desks they have in classrooms today. Also, keep in mind, the USCDA experimented with underground, fallout-shelter schools Like Abo Elementary School/Fallout Shelter in Artesia, NM. Look around TH-cam at all the civil defense films the USCDA made. Duck and Cover was one of many, and was only intended for extremely young children who couldn't understand much about the scary things happening all around them.
Well said. People don't understand that this was released when bombs were delivered by planes, and the HBomb wasn't even around. If you are far enough away, this would save you
My dad (a boomer who went through a lot of duck and cover bomb drills) also told me that having the kids get under their desks would help with body identification, as the seating chart would be on file with an agency outside of the school. I dunno how true that is, or where he learned it from, but it at least sounds plausible lol
I watched this short in a cultural Anthropology class once. The class was laughing through almost all of it, but the picnic scene is where everyone just really, truly lost it because it looks so much like a sketch out of a comedy show. The professor had to pause the video because nobody could keep it together.
If you've ever owned a wonderful orange vhs tape then you know the white screen at the end of the tape. As soon as rugrats was off it was a mad dash to get it out before that terror
Nice Blues Brothers reference.. I remember seeing similar warnings following the Chernobyl accident. I grew up outside the 10-mile "You're vaporized" zone, but within the 50-mile "You're screwed" zone.
Lol (not much to do with anything), but when Anthrax attempted their first European tour, they played a show near Chernobyl almost right after it happened. Ironically, they were touring behind an album called "Spreading the Disease".
I'd be really creeped-out to be lying around in back alleys, covering my head and blocking my vision, with men in trenchcoats walking around to alert me it's safe. What if it's not one of the "right" men in trenchcoats that gets to you?
Actually in some circumstances you can smell and taste fallout, the metal from the bomb casing can evaporate giving the air a metallic smell and taste.
The first time I heard any Duck and Cover clips was from an, ironically, Atom Ant music video on Cartoon Network years ago. They used the 'WE MUST GET READY NOW' clips as well as others and honestly? Given the context, the character(s), and the stop-motion of the video it was awesome. Shows that Duck and Cover has gotten around over the years in many ways.
The main thing I don't get about this is that nobody making this realized that, even if you do all these things, radiation will happen. (Pretty sure they knew about that stuff back then)
They knew, but they figured giving people false hope made civilians feel safer. Although it would've been nice to see a an honest PSA that basically said: "If a nuke drops, you're fucked. Your options are a quick death or a slow and horrifying one."
I think my Mom was shown this in her school because the second I mentioned that they had this episode her face lit up. Funny how people have good memories learning how to avoid nuclear blasts.
I grew up during the cold war and remember the duck and cover drills as school. For a while there was an air raid siren that could be heard in the distance as well.
Hahahah goddamn, the Bert tribute, so sincere. I've been watching your shows back to back since yesterday, Ben. They're great! Enjoyable and well crafted. Your narration's definitely the best part, though. You touch on all the little quirks and I totally dig it.
@@ExtremeGamer9951 it technically is. A indie/art theater used to play it, but the next year they no longer were allowed to. Coincided with the day Disney+ went online, coincidentally.
Also, this was done at a time when most nuclear weapons were considerably smaller and less accurate, so while Duck and Cover has some bad advice, the overall concept isn't that stupid when consider a large percentage of people killed by large explosions of all types are killed by shrapnel or debris as opposed to being burnt or blown apart.
I remember being taught Duck and Cover in the early 90's in case of an earthquake in CA. It made sense at the time but I have no clue if they still teach that now.
I was taught a variation of it in the 00s and 10s in Texas in case of a tornado or active shooter. In those cases, we’d be up against the walls as far from the windows as possible rather than under our desks.
Not trying to against the grain or anything but depending on were your at you could possibly survive a Nuclear attack. I dont believe "duck and cover " is the fix all to survive an attack but in the right setting it could help to survive an attack you would have to avoid being set on fire during "first light" then get to shelter to shield from the oncoming blast wave then you would have to run like hell to get away from the fall out but you could technically survive
Yes, you COULD survive. There are many freak examples of various Japanese surviving the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at or very close to, the epicenter. However these are the exceptions. But the bombs dropped on Japan were rather weak in comparison to modern fusion H-bombs and if one were to be used ever it would be a lot more destructive. Also one cannot "outrun" radiation, radioactive particles and rays travel much faster than the top human running speed.
Robert Szasz LOL, wut? Are you implying one can outrun the wind? Wtf is this, Shymalan's The Happening? Also radiation, in a vacuum, travels at around the speed of light, maybe the atmosphere slows it down somewhat, I have no idea, but one cannot outrun it. As for radiation "stopping pretty quickly", I have no idea what this is supposed to mean, as the radiation from atom bombs and nuclear meltdowns can and does travel thousands of miles, indeed one such event will significantly and measurably raise the background radiation levels of the entire planet. If you mean radiation at levels high enough to cause acute radiation sickness, um yeah, it travels pretty far. Radiation in general is pretty hard to "stop", only the densest materials are capable of doing this, which is why they cover you in a lead sheet when they take X-rays at the hospital, and even then, one still receives a pretty high dose of rads notwithstanding.
You would be dead within a few hours anyways from radiation sickness anyways. There is nothing you can do to protect yourself from a nuclear blast within your own home.
Duck and Cover for Tornado Warning, we use to prepare with it, but when we got a tornado warning during school, i was in the basement, while everyone else was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off , i say Duck and Cover is so stupid. It won't help in a Tornado, or Nuke Blast.
If I saw the flash, and was in the middle of nowhere, I'd just give up and start singing "Familiar Faces." Because hey, no amount of ducking and covering in a flat land will save you.
The response to some of your questions. You are supposed to remain covered until after the secondary blast wave. The first blast wave is what does most of the damage, but there is a second one that heads towards the explosion shortly after due to the vacuum effect of the first explosion. That is why when you see those nuclear test films, you see the first blast then it stops and a second or two later a smaller, dragging blast wave moves towards the explosion.
I think this whole duck and cover thing is more like akin to praying. An action done in vain that makes you hope you survive. Instead of going panic and looking like an idiot in the last seconds of your life, you go down a bit more honorably.
You should, if you already haven't, do the Story of Menstruation from Disney. LONG OVERDUE UPDATE: First, I saw my misspelling of it, and two, I forgot you don't mess with the D word, right? lol
They told us to duck and cover for tornado drills (we put a book over our head), did them every year, in 2012, a tornado happened in Crawford County PA, when went to the gym (where there were no windows) and duck-and-covered there,
Sometimes when you riff we hear crickets chirping, this one had me laughing several times and is one of your best riffs of all. excellent episode "sweet, no cubscout meeting todaaaay!" - dark, lol
12:18 Paul and Patty know what to do: get next to the brick wall, so when it collapses on them from the shockwave of the A-bomb, they won't have to deal with the fight for survival after nuclear war.
The Kekistani People were being forced from their homes in Albania and Yugoslavia (Especially Albania), and deported to Kurdistan, Iran/Iraq/Syria/Turkey, or genocided in former Nazi Concentration Camps. We ran from our homes in Kosovo all the way to the Friendly People of East Germany. Kekistanis actually aren't Anthro Frogs, they're Actually Just Koreans I with Fox Ears and Tails.
![ลองสั่งของจากแอพ temu ถูกจริงหรอ?? [โกงไหมครับ ep.88 ] | DOM](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/RTcZSQTiDZw/mqdefault.jpg)
Duck and Cover is one of the most misunderstood things ever, and a lot of people really haven't researched the Civil Defense films made by the US during the Cold War and thus think "wow, Duck and Cover is really stupid, our government must really think we're a bunch of morons to fall for something so naiive and ridiculous."
The government (and most American adults) knew about nuclear fallout, and the USCDA had plenty of films distributed to the public discussing it in substantial detail.
It also knew people and kids would have to do more to survive a nuclear war than hide under their desks, and makes that clear in many other films. The government made many civil defense videos very similar in scope to the UKWMO Protect and Survive series.
The reason D&C doesn't go into detail is because it was meant to be shown to children, who were assumed to be unable to process enough information in a state of great terror to be able to act rationally so the message given to them was to be as simple and understandable as possible.
First, the USCDA knew that many would die. Within a few miles of a nuclear explosion, everybody would. But, several miles away, many people would be close enough to get hurt if they didn't find some kind of hasty protection from the flash and blast, but far enough away to survive with minimal injuries if they took hid from flying debris and high temp flash. Fallout and radiation would not hit for up to thirty minutes, so they would have just enough time to hide, and after the initial heat and blast, would be able to head for a fallout shelter.
The idea of D&C was to keep little kids from curiously looking out the window at a far-away nuclear blast and thus not get burned by the initial high temperature flash nor turned to mincemeat by flying glass shrapnel and debris from the room during the overpressure wave of a nuclear explosion. Teachers were to know what to do next. Basically, the USCDA hoped that all kids would have to know is to duck under their desks, which would protect them from high-velocity shrapnel and debris, and the teachers, educated on more serious and lengthy civil defense training films, would then immediately evacuate them to a thick-walled, concrete fallout shelter stocked with a couple weeks' supply of water and food.
Keep in mind, back then school desks were often bolted to the floor and made of metal. They weren't the kinds of lightweight portable desks they have in classrooms today.
Also, keep in mind, the USCDA experimented with underground, fallout-shelter schools Like Abo Elementary School/Fallout Shelter in Artesia, NM.
Look around TH-cam at all the civil defense films the USCDA made. Duck and Cover was one of many, and was only intended for extremely young children who couldn't understand much about the scary things happening all around them.
Wow. That whole essay for nothing.
Wow an informative and interesting essay and a dumbass , asshole hater ...what a fascinating day
Thanks for explaining. It makes it clearer with context.
Well said. People don't understand that this was released when bombs were delivered by planes, and the HBomb wasn't even around. If you are far enough away, this would save you
My dad (a boomer who went through a lot of duck and cover bomb drills) also told me that having the kids get under their desks would help with body identification, as the seating chart would be on file with an agency outside of the school. I dunno how true that is, or where he learned it from, but it at least sounds plausible lol
I watched this short in a cultural Anthropology class once. The class was laughing through almost all of it, but the picnic scene is where everyone just really, truly lost it because it looks so much like a sketch out of a comedy show. The professor had to pause the video because nobody could keep it together.
"Now, what do you do when you see The Flash?"
Uh, tell him Professor Zoom went thattaway?
Immediately realize I have the superhuman ability to see things that can move at light speed?
My English teacher showed us this episode.
Sometimes "TCM underground," would be showing this.. late at night.
Can't think of Duck & Cover without thinking of Lewis Black and/or South Park
As Chef said. That has to be the most ridiculous load of pig crap I've ever seen
If you've ever owned a wonderful orange vhs tape then you know the white screen at the end of the tape. As soon as rugrats was off it was a mad dash to get it out before that terror
Nice Blues Brothers reference..
I remember seeing similar warnings following the Chernobyl accident. I grew up outside the 10-mile "You're vaporized" zone, but within the 50-mile "You're screwed" zone.
Lol (not much to do with anything), but when Anthrax attempted their first European tour, they played a show near Chernobyl almost right after it happened. Ironically, they were touring behind an album called "Spreading the Disease".
You grew up near Chernobyl? (Isn't that in Pripyat, Ukraine?)
I'd be really creeped-out to be lying around in back alleys, covering my head and blocking my vision, with men in trenchcoats walking around to alert me it's safe. What if it's not one of the "right" men in trenchcoats that gets to you?
If the flash came, they'd be dead already, so no need to duck and cover.
Actually in some circumstances you can smell and taste fallout, the metal from the bomb casing can evaporate giving the air a metallic smell and taste.
The first time I heard any Duck and Cover clips was from an, ironically, Atom Ant music video on Cartoon Network years ago. They used the 'WE MUST GET READY NOW' clips as well as others and honestly? Given the context, the character(s), and the stop-motion of the video it was awesome. Shows that Duck and Cover has gotten around over the years in many ways.
+Super Cosmic Mutant Honey Candle Squid omg same here
+Captain Giratina I guess that makes Me three also! XD
Super Cosmic Mutant Honey Candle Squid I remember that music video as well
OMG incoming ICBMs someone quick please grab me a newspaper
The main thing I don't get about this is that nobody making this realized that, even if you do all these things, radiation will happen. (Pretty sure they knew about that stuff back then)
They knew, but they figured giving people false hope made civilians feel safer. Although it would've been nice to see a an honest PSA that basically said:
"If a nuke drops, you're fucked. Your options are a quick death or a slow and horrifying one."
I think I damaged my spine laughing at the voicers you gave to everyone in the video.
have you seen RiffTrax take on Duck and Cover yet?
I think my Mom was shown this in her school because the second I mentioned that they had this episode her face lit up. Funny how people have good memories learning how to avoid nuclear blasts.
I grew up during the cold war and remember the duck and cover drills as school. For a while there was an air raid siren that could be heard in the distance as well.
R.I.P my good fellow Bert....the master of the wasteland
Hahahah goddamn, the Bert tribute, so sincere.
I've been watching your shows back to back since yesterday, Ben. They're great! Enjoyable and well crafted. Your narration's definitely the best part, though. You touch on all the little quirks and I totally dig it.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on the infamous Star Wars Holiday Special...which was so bad it aired once and never again....
The nostalgia critic already covered it. And it may still by copyrighted.
@@ExtremeGamer9951 it technically is. A indie/art theater used to play it, but the next year they no longer were allowed to. Coincided with the day Disney+ went online, coincidentally.
Also, this was done at a time when most nuclear weapons were considerably smaller and less accurate, so while Duck and Cover has some bad advice, the overall concept isn't that stupid when consider a large percentage of people killed by large explosions of all types are killed by shrapnel or debris as opposed to being burnt or blown apart.
Please don't get discouraged by low views, if you are. I love your videos and I hope to see even more great stuff in the future.
I watched this in history class when we learned about the cold war
Ha, same here.
"YOU ARE TEARING ME APART LISA"- with nuclear bombs
oh hi Bryan!
Let's go eat, HUH?
It seems like that all that presentation did was to make kids paranoid.
I wish all EAS warnings played "Duck and Cover".
I hope you get to interview someone in the future. Even if it’s the Happy Hamsters.
The reference to The Room definitely made the video.
Lady Scarecrow at 3:26! The horror!! (RiffTrax fans will recognize it as the short used for the live riff of Anaconda)
I remember being taught Duck and Cover in the early 90's in case of an earthquake in CA. It made sense at the time but I have no clue if they still teach that now.
I was taught a variation of it in the 00s and 10s in Texas in case of a tornado or active shooter. In those cases, we’d be up against the walls as far from the windows as possible rather than under our desks.
ah yes, duck, cover and kiss your ass goodbye!!
Atomic bombs are bad, but Atomic Bongs???
Not trying to against the grain or anything but depending on were your at you could possibly survive a Nuclear attack. I dont believe "duck and cover " is the fix all to survive an attack but in the right setting it could help to survive an attack you would have to avoid being set on fire during "first light" then get to shelter to shield from the oncoming blast wave then you would have to run like hell to get away from the fall out but you could technically survive
Yes, you COULD survive. There are many freak examples of various Japanese surviving the attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at or very close to, the epicenter. However these are the exceptions. But the bombs dropped on Japan were rather weak in comparison to modern fusion H-bombs and if one were to be used ever it would be a lot more destructive.
Also one cannot "outrun" radiation, radioactive particles and rays travel much faster than the top human running speed.
BiscuitHead Actually the X and gamma rays stop pretty quickly, and radioactive particles move no faster than the wind.
Robert Szasz LOL, wut? Are you implying one can outrun the wind?
Wtf is this, Shymalan's The Happening?
Also radiation, in a vacuum, travels at around the speed of light, maybe the atmosphere slows it down somewhat, I have no idea, but one cannot outrun it. As for radiation "stopping pretty quickly", I have no idea what this is supposed to mean, as the radiation from atom bombs and nuclear meltdowns can and does travel thousands of miles, indeed one such event will significantly and measurably raise the background radiation levels of the entire planet.
If you mean radiation at levels high enough to cause acute radiation sickness, um yeah, it travels pretty far.
Radiation in general is pretty hard to "stop", only the densest materials are capable of doing this, which is why they cover you in a lead sheet when they take X-rays at the hospital, and even then, one still receives a pretty high dose of rads notwithstanding.
Just saying, ducking is not a good thing to do. The radiation would accumulate on the ground.
You would be dead within a few hours anyways from radiation sickness anyways. There is nothing you can do to protect yourself from a nuclear blast within your own home.
This is such a cheerful conversation.
Duck and Cover for Tornado Warning, we use to prepare with it, but when we got a tornado warning during school, i was in the basement, while everyone else was running around like a chicken with it's head cut off , i say Duck and Cover is so stupid. It won't help in a Tornado, or Nuke Blast.
LONG LIVE THE SIMIAN EMPEROR!
Ben, I suggest you do an episode riffing the 1965 Rural Civil Defense films with the marionettes.
Just try to make light of this after seeing the British Anti-nuke grotesquerie, Threads.
Is bert the turtle English?
@@bkrbyex4339 I think they mean Threads.
Yes the viewer yes its you I'll screw! Screw and screw and screw and screw! SUCK AND PROFIT!
Best line in the series!
:O You reference Portal! (Possibly)
If I saw the flash, and was in the middle of nowhere, I'd just give up and start singing "Familiar Faces." Because hey, no amount of ducking and covering in a flat land will save you.
N00by's Crazy Corner You mean Mad World, right?
that as well
N00by's Crazy Corner
🎵 _We'll meet again_
_Don't know where_
_Don't know wheeeeen_
_But I know we'll meet again_
_Some sunny day_ 🎵
lol.... hahaha... even a thin cloth.... best line in the whole thing....
More like catch you on fire...
I creid at the Bert part
Wow, I never caught the reference to Alanis Morissette's song until just now. I am so slow xP
You should join the RiffTrax team with Michael J. Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett xD
Kingdom of the crystal skull gave a better example than this...
9:14 ROFL
The response to some of your questions.
You are supposed to remain covered until after the secondary blast wave. The first blast wave is what does most of the damage, but there is a second one that heads towards the explosion shortly after due to the vacuum effect of the first explosion. That is why when you see those nuclear test films, you see the first blast then it stops and a second or two later a smaller, dragging blast wave moves towards the explosion.
So could the duck and cover strategy really save you if we got nuked or are you pretty much screwed depending on where you are?
I think this whole duck and cover thing is more like akin to praying. An action done in vain that makes you hope you survive. Instead of going panic and looking like an idiot in the last seconds of your life, you go down a bit more honorably.
Duck and Cover, lol, You will be vaporized if you seen the flash that close
Nice watch. Was it 12 o'clock or 6:30?
Hey! Ben didn't lie this time!
Is this who Tippi the Turtle was based on?
the only (non riff) episode with a dvd release.
And VHS!
And Beta
And Laserdisc.
And u matic
This aired on my 18th birthday.
"If an A bomb hits, what good is it gonna do to duck and cover?"
isnt that from the game harvester?
Yes, yes it is. :)
You should, if you already haven't, do the Story of Menstruation from Disney.
LONG OVERDUE UPDATE: First, I saw my misspelling of it, and two, I forgot you don't mess with the D word, right? lol
duck and cover more like RUN BITCH RUUUUN
Na, running won't save ya. The best you can do is put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye.........Or just keep playing Fallout. ;)
They told us to duck and cover for tornado drills (we put a book over our head), did them every year, in 2012, a tornado happened in Crawford County PA, when went to the gym (where there were no windows) and duck-and-covered there,
These audio clips were used in the Cartoon Network Groovie "Atom Ant".
Talk shit about this all you want, but you'd rather duck and cover than jump and strip when the shockwave comes.
"Mr. Williams, why are you dressed like that?"
The one and only!
Ben pulled a Soldier. "GET A HAIRCUT HIPPIE!"
Why do people think this advice is worthless? It's actually quite useful, if you think about it.
I watch this video in my history class, and I just thought of the part of Ben singing. At 6:15
I always look forward to these
I can imagine the bright flash being the white screen at the end of some VHS tapes.
for the last time class turtle wax is not made from tuurtless!!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 rip bert the turtle😔🙏⭐☝️
Keep up the good work.
this was in the iron giant!
MY GOD YOU HAVENT SEEN DAT MOVIE?! YOU MUST!!!!ITS LIK MY FAVORITE MOVIE EVER
Actually, it was a parody of this film that was seen in "The Iron Giant".
Made for different reasons than what it will be used for in later years
Sometimes when you riff we hear crickets chirping, this one had me laughing several times and is one of your best riffs of all. excellent episode "sweet, no cubscout meeting todaaaay!" - dark, lol
I really appreciate the Blues Brothers reference though
_DUCK!_ *(twerks)* _And COVER_ *(death drops)*
Wow, I just watched Threads and now I get your ending piece. Such a depressing movie.
age 1084 actually his duck and cover did last him 1000 years before his info-movie (or is it still infomercial)
12:18 Paul and Patty know what to do: get next to the brick wall, so when it collapses on them from the shockwave of the A-bomb, they won't have to deal with the fight for survival after nuclear war.
Good riffing😂❤❤❤
WHAT????????????? Duck and Cover was real!?????????????????
Bert was my best friend when I was moving from Kekistan to East Germany. Rest In Peace, Bert, SHADILAY!
The Kekistani People were being forced from their homes in Albania and Yugoslavia (Especially Albania), and deported to Kurdistan, Iran/Iraq/Syria/Turkey, or genocided in former Nazi Concentration Camps. We ran from our homes in Kosovo all the way to the Friendly People of East Germany. Kekistanis actually aren't Anthro Frogs, they're Actually Just Koreans I with Fox Ears and Tails.
Voiceovers are amazing hahaha