Gurning & Spontaneous Human Combustion

[Underminer]

Not connected to each other, but when I was little, circa mid 80s, gurning used to be a regular thing on telly, along with spontaneous human combustion being a thing we were all scared of happening to us.
Anyone else remember this? Maybe the gurning was on Record Breakers? I remember watching it on more that on occasion, my brother has a memory of old men with no teeth pulling faces through horse collars, and he thinks it was a toothpaste advert and that’s why we don’t really hear about it now? We don’t live in an area with contests.

What other random things do you remember that seem to have spontaneously combusted in history?

Yes, about 20 years ago. Around 20 Chinese workers drowned that day. Really awful tragedy. Though I think it was being cut off by the tide that caused their deaths rather than quicksand.

Yes, they did. In about 2003 ish IIRC. Very sad business. They had come from China to seek a life here and ended up dead. Horrible.

Anything west of Cardiff. Humph.

Roald Dahl’s Tales of The Unexpected anyone? Used to watch it while babysitting on a Saturday night and terrify myself.

@BestIsWest Yes! Tales of the Unexpected scared me. I couldn’t relate how Roald Dahl could write children’s books that I loved but also have this different side to him.

I know not quicksand but there’s a news story today if a boy trapped waist deep in mud whilst walking his dog. He’s ok.

Quicksand was a big fear for me too, as a child of the 60s/70s.

A poster above wonders if our fear of it came from watching Tarzan. Seems possible to me. I watched something on TV where a man was blinded because soldier ants had eaten his eyes. I'm pretty sure that was on Tarzan! The idea really scared me and I was terrified of them for years.

Luckily, there aren't many soldier ants in Surrey, where I grew up.

Tales of the Unexpected is on all the time. London Live I think so probably other regional channels

I remember the Tarzan series regularly seemed to involve quicksand which was roughly square shaped too. All you needed to do was haul yourself up with a convenient vine and lie flat on the surface and you were safe.

I always thought quicksand was a sort of top layer and you were sucked down into an abyss, rather than you were just surrounded and suffocated by quicksand. 🤔 Don’t know why I thought that though.

Thought of another thing I haven’t seen for years - on the tv when I was little, it used to be a thing where you’d see people at their GPs getting their reflex tested with a hammer and knee thing. Haven’t seen that in years! Wonder if they still do it?

I've had that done in the last few years - can't remember if it was at the GP's or in A&E though..

@Kerfuffler That’s interesting. I wondered if it was more of thing on kids tv shows to show check ups and that’s why I don’t see it on the tv now.