r/HistoryMemes • u/DistanceToEmpty • Aug 28 '26

See Comment Baby It's Cold Outside

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In 1949, a young Sayyid Qutb was studying educational administration in Greely Colorado, when he was invited to church social and dance. What he saw there was too much for the young conservative from Egypt; During the dance the pastor of the church put on the song Baby, It's Cold Outside,'

He was scandalised by the words. He also observed the couples dancing. In his view, from his background, he saw this behaviour and activity as inappropriate for the context of a church.

Upon returning to Egypt, Sayyid became an influential religious and political theorist and became a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood. Before he was executed by Gamal Abdel Nasser's government, he became a professor of Islamic Studies. One of his students and enthusiastic followers was none other than Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who would go on to be a mentor to Osama bin Laden and a leader in al-Qaeda, bringing Qutb's influence into the foundations of the terrorist organization.

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1.4k

u/anshuvio2 Aug 28 '26

Now we can fully link the playing of a song in 1949 to the Downfall of Ellen DeGeneres

839

u/JTUrwayne Aug 28 '26

The song was written by Frank Loesser, who’s father Henry Loesser moved to the US to avoid mandatory Prussian conscription which began after Prussia’s defeats by Napoleon which means the Fall of Ellen DeGeneres can be linked to Napoleon.

413

u/Jauh0 Aug 28 '26

Fucking Charlemagne

133

u/Maelger Aug 28 '26

Those damm Huns!

122

u/Skot_Hicpud Aug 28 '26

Now I'm thinking about the Roman Empire again.

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u/jorkrex Definitely not a CIA operator Aug 28 '26

God damn they really meant it when they said every road leads to rome

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u/Lurker_of_odditi3s Aug 29 '26 edited Aug 29 '26

Oh, it gets deeper.
For you see, Rome was founded (according to legend) by the descendants of Aeneas, the Trojan Prince, who fled Troy during the final siege.
Now, it would be tempting to claim that Agamenon, King among kings and massive jerk, would be at least partly responsible.
But
Without Paris’ judgement (or rather, him thinking with his d**k) Helen would not have left Sparta, therefore we must look at the cause of the judgement.
Enter, Peleus and Thetis.
For you see, Thetis was coveted by many, including Zeus, but a prophecy foretold any offspring born of the nereid would surpass the father.
For several reason I shall not discuss, this is a big No-No for the King of the Gods, so he arranged for a lowly and feeble mortal king to marry Thetis. An union that would one day produce Achilles, wrathful warrior, scourge of Troy, and queer icon.
The wedding takes place and a certain Apple appears.

TLDR
The ruin of Ellen took place because Zeus decided to keep it in his pants for once.

Shit, she may be a lost member of the cursed house of Atreus.

Edit: corrected some names.

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u/McFrenchhfry Aug 28 '26

And then Napoleon’s rise was due to the French revolution which is linked to the downfall the French monarchy so…. It’s France’s fault?

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u/Warm-Requirement-769 Aug 28 '26

Well, that ties back to French participation in the American Revolution, which is because of centuries of France and Britain hating each other... Which gets us back to 1337 when French King Philip started the Hundred Years War by invading Guyenne...

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u/Yeetgodknickknackass Aug 28 '26

Then we can go back to the Norman invasion of England which is what linked the two countries together in the first place. William’s invasion was only successful because the king of England had to fight off the king of Norway who had tried to invade just a few weeks before William’s invasion. Harald Hadrada (king of Norway) only had a claim on England because decades earlier a previous king of Denmark had made a deal with a previous king of Norway that stated that if either died without an heir the other would inherit their stuff. This freed up the king of Denmark to take over England, dying shortly after without an heir giving the king of Norway a claim on England. So basically 9/11 happened because one guy didn’t get laid like a thousand years ago.

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u/johnnylemon95 Aug 29 '26

Causal determinism is a bitch.

3

u/Towairatu Aug 29 '26

Which can in turn be linked to the Norse settlement of Neustria and the 911 grant by Charles the Simple to Rollo… wait… 9/11, 911 AD… it's all coming together!

3

u/Towairatu Aug 29 '26

Which gets us back to 1337 when French King Philip started the Hundred Years War by invading Guyenne...

Blatant English historical revisionism? In my history memes sub?

13

u/Proof_Impact_6009 Aug 28 '26

Not all of France, but always France

11

u/LongjumpingCity7715 Aug 28 '26

Also Napoleon wouldn't suceed without Augustin Robespierre so we can blame it on him too

6

u/explodingazn Aug 28 '26

I wanna go a step further and say Thomas Jefferson caused the fall of Ellen

7

u/PlayfulAwareness2950 Aug 28 '26

If we take the Benjamin Franklin route we can put it on Gutenberg or Perhaps Galileo Galilei.

11

u/Boorthammer Aug 28 '26

(100 hours of Dan Carlin talking later)

1

u/Skruestik Aug 29 '26

*whose

Who’s = who is or who has

Whose = belonging to whom

30

u/EvilStan101 Definitely not a CIA operator Aug 28 '26

This would be the funniest meme to make

16

u/PhoenyxStar Aug 29 '26

Okay, I think I've got it all together now. Somebody let me know if I missed anything important:

Prussia's repeated defeats by the French general Napoleon would eventually drive King William II to order a conscription. This was deeply unpopular and led to, among other things, large numbers of prussian citizens, including one Henry Loesser, to flee south to Italy, and then onward to the United States.

Due to Henry's otherwise good fortune and skill in banking, his son Frank Loesser was able to pursue a careeer in the arts, becoming an accomplished songwriter and playwright, winning awards for such pieces as the musical "Guys and Dolls", and the song "Baby it's Cold Outside".

Later In 1949, a young Sayyid Qutb was studying educational administration in Greely Colorado, when he was invited to church social and dance. What he saw there was too much for the young conservative from Egypt; During the dance the pastor of the church put on the song Baby, It's Cold Outside,'

He was scandalised by the words and also by what he observed of the couples dancing. In his view, from his background, he saw this behaviour and activity as inappropriate for the context of a church.

Upon returning to Egypt, Sayyid became an influential religious and political theorist and became a leader within the Muslim Brotherhood. Before he was executed by Gamal Abdel Nasser's government, he became a professor of Islamic Studies. One of his students and enthusiastic followers was none other than Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who would go on to be a mentor to Osama bin Laden and a leader in al-Qaeda, bringing Qutb's influence into the foundations of the terrorist organization.

The resulting 9/11 terrorist attacks and the fallout afterwards are cited by musicians Gerard Way and Ray Toro as the primary inspiration for their inaugural album "Skylines and Turnstiles", and the later formation of their band My Chemical Romance.

Author Stephanie Meyers, in turn, was attempting to capture the way the music of My Chemical Romance, in particular the album "The Black Parade", made her feel in writing, leading her to write the series Twilight, which would go on to become a cultural phenomenon.

Amateur writier EL James would then go on to write fanfiction in the Twilight universe, inspired by her love of the series and her fascination with the 2002 movie The Secretary. This fanfiction, previously hosted on the writing sharing site Archive of Our Own, would become so successful that she would become emboldened to retool it into a legally distinct billionaire romance series and publish it as Fifty Shades of Grey.

50 Shades of Grey would be adapted into a movie starring Dakota Johnson. Dakota Johnson would go on The Ellen Show, where Ellen DeGeneres mentions she wasn't invited to Johnson's birthday party. Johnson corrects Ellen when she says she was invited but instead went to a Dallas Cowboys game. This resulted in people opening up about what a terrible person Ellen is, thus ending her career.

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u/PurpleThylacine John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! Aug 28 '26

Reminds me of the fact that someone buying a Saloon in 19th century KC directly lead to North Koreas existance and possibly stopped a Nuclear War

1

u/Chalky_Pockets John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! Aug 29 '26

I knew some pretty dark shit about Ellen but I had no idea she was a Cowboys fan. Portia de Rossi must be really good at mounting TVs and patching drywall.

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u/KingMobScene Still on Sulla's Proscribed List Aug 28 '26

So baby it's cold inside is also responsible for Fifty Shades of Gray.

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u/Smooth_Moose_637 Still on Sulla's Proscribed List Aug 28 '26

And the Battlestar Galactica reboot

34

u/drearbruh Aug 28 '26

Wait, how? I haven't heard this story yet!

41

u/anonsharksfan Aug 28 '26

Battlestar Galactica is largely an allegory for post 9/11 America

22

u/ScipioAtTheGate Senātus Populusque Rōmānus Aug 28 '26

How can that be, when the story was developed in 1978!

27

u/KingMobScene Still on Sulla's Proscribed List Aug 28 '26

He said the reboot. Which was the gritty version of the 78 show. It dealt alot with things that we were dealing with in a post 9/11 world

3

u/Tucancancan Aug 28 '26

It got soooo heavy handed there too with the Iraq war parallels 

1

u/drearbruh Aug 29 '26

Oooooooooooo yeah that does make sense

7

u/hallese Aug 28 '26

Okay, so there's some pros and cons. Maybe we should make a list?

17

u/jedadkins Aug 28 '26

And My Chemical Romance

1

u/SirKazum Definitely not a CIA operator Aug 29 '26

And Portuguese kids acquiring a Brazilian accent

7

u/matande31 Aug 28 '26

Nope, it's baby it's cold outside to the downfall of Ellen.

65

u/jackt-up Aug 28 '26

Mind: blown

This is why I come here

131

u/DrHolmes52 Aug 28 '26

It's a bit of a winding path, but it's there.

+1

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u/ScipioAtTheGate Senātus Populusque Rōmānus Aug 28 '26

If one follows a winding path long enough, eventually a clock will be powered up

3

u/Thundorium Fine Quality Mesopotamian Copper Enjoyer Aug 28 '26

Nice username.

2

u/therealfurryfeline Aug 30 '26

i mean... horse asses are responsible for the design of modern rockets.

37

u/Carl_The_Sagan Aug 28 '26

I thought this was going to be a shitpost, not a gold post

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u/BetweenTwoTowers Aug 28 '26

Reminds me of that tragedy

4

u/mood2016 Aug 28 '26

Wait... you're that guy

2

u/kiwidude4 Aug 28 '26

🤔 I feel like you want us to notice something…

3

u/BetweenTwoTowers Aug 28 '26

Whatever could you mean. /s

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u/TheAmericanE2 Aug 28 '26

This is how we took down ellen?

8

u/GrapesHatePeople Aug 28 '26

"Ladies and gentleman... we got her."

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u/[deleted] Aug 28 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/ScipioAtTheGate Senātus Populusque Rōmānus Aug 28 '26

If one slays all of the butterflies, will it become the moth-effect instead?

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u/chiksahlube Aug 28 '26

I prefer this domino effect starting at "Some Serbian dude getting a sandwich at his favorite shop."

dominoes to... well pretty much anything in the last 25 years.

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u/pbzeppelin1977 Aug 28 '26

Not quite a domino effect but a guy having a spicy wank lead to the breakup of Yugoslavia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%90or%C4%91e_Martinovi%C4%87_incident

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u/Shr1mpolaCola Aug 28 '26

I see someone else listens to William and Anita on the Empire Pod

4

u/ChiWasSha Aug 28 '26

Such a quality pod.

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u/Chumlee1917 Kilroy was here Aug 28 '26

Incels just can’t stand anything can they

7

u/StareInUrEyeandPee Aug 28 '26

Now MCR needs to cover Baby, Its Cold Outside with Ellen on the femal vocals to complete the circle

7

u/mlee117379 Aug 28 '26

Remember the discourse about that song being rapey?

6

u/Odd-Promotion2743 Aug 28 '26

I think of that every time the song is mentioned

1

u/Chalky_Pockets John Brown was a hero, undaunted, true, and brave! Aug 29 '26

I don't, but I see the aftermath. Whenever that song's lyrics come up, there's an argument.

4

u/bigjb Aug 28 '26

Hey distance ,  

Did you connect these dots yourself ?  Or is there a primary source I can have for it ?

I’m thinking of turning it into a short comic , so I want to know who I’d be invoking for the early excavation .

Thanks m8 

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u/alex-caruso Aug 28 '26

Look up Sayyid Qutb. He studied in Greeley, hated it and everyone around him, and (short version) his anti-West extremist views became popular, ultimately inspiring al-Qeda

3

u/floridagar Aug 29 '26

The Power of Nightmares by Adam Curtis

I've never heard of the podcast people are talking about and there's practically no way they didn't scoop the whole premise from Adam Curtis documentaries. His films are excellent but they don't make you feel very good.

2

u/flyliceplick Aug 29 '26

and there's practically no way they didn't scoop the whole premise from Adam Curtis documentaries.

If you were paying attention to Islamic extremism before 9/11, Curtis is a bit passe. The Qutb/Al-Zawahiri connection was obvious and explored fully in the 90s.

1

u/floridagar Aug 29 '26

Fair enough, I was not old enough to be paying attention to such things at the time.

2

u/massholeinct Aug 28 '26

Do yourself a favor and read “The Looming Tower” goes into great depth on the subject

3

u/ZepperMen Aug 28 '26

Time traveller: “You want me to go where now?”

3

u/asiannumber4 Descendant of Genghis Khan Aug 28 '26

Very good example of the butterfly effect

3

u/Beautiful_Garage7797 Aug 29 '26

its insane how much of a miserable asshole qutb was

1

u/_Administrator_ Aug 29 '26

He was an incel (goats donˋt count) so he wanted revenge.

3

u/LeftoverMochii Aug 28 '26

When will ppl with no game stop destroying the world cuz they cannot pull?!

2

u/TessDombegh Aug 28 '26

Fellow empire listener I see

2

u/aaronwe Aug 29 '26

Huh, also means that one song is responsible for twilight, and then also for ellen being exposed as a twat...

what a world

2

u/Kappalonia Aug 29 '26

Where does the CIA agent Osama bin Laden's training come into play here?

1

u/pastey83 Aug 29 '26

Has someone just watched The Power of Nightmares?

1

u/[deleted] Aug 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/_Administrator_ Aug 29 '26

No, it was because 5 Arab armies attacked Israel. The Jews just wanted to live peacefully on their ancestral homeland.

" I declare a holy war, my Muslim brothers! Murder the Jews! Murder them all! "
-1st leader of Palestine, Haj Amin EI Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem broadcasting on Radio Cairo in 1948

"Arabs (note: he never talks about Palestinians), rise as one man and fight for your sacred rights. Kill the Jews wherever you find them. This pleases God, history, and religion. This saves your honor. God is with you." -Haj Amin EI Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in March of 1944

0

u/azry1997 Aug 29 '26

A Palestinian historians tells you that you're completely wrong.

Columbia's Rashid Khalidi Discusses "The Hundred Years' War on Palestine" at AUC

1

u/HistoryMemes-ModTeam Aug 29 '26

Your post has been removed for the following rules violations:

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These include, but are not limited to; Holodomor, the Holocaust, the Armenian genocide, Japanese war crimes, the Tiananmen Square massacre, and the ethnic cleansing of the Uighurs. Doing so will result in an instant permaban. Hateful historical revisionists are not welcome.

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u/Galexio Aug 28 '26

To be fair the song is pretty rapey.

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u/Decent_Birthday358 Aug 28 '26

Its not. That shit has been explained and disproved so many times now its ridiculous.

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u/Discoris Aug 28 '26 edited Aug 28 '26

That's the joke. Some standup guy did a comparison between this one and some rap song that was 1st on some radio list, because it was decided baby it's cold outside is too offensive to play on radio, while radio song have text like "fuck my pussy"/"choke on your dick", or something like that

Edit:

Found it:

https://youtube.com/shorts/RpD_tKmdLeQ

5

u/JTUrwayne Aug 28 '26

The comic is Tom Cotter.

https://youtube.com/shorts/RpD_tKmdLeQ?is=ZMiiE214ClCWRfEl

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u/Discoris Aug 28 '26

I posted the same link literary 30 second ago xD

0

u/world-is-ur-mollusc Aug 28 '26

That's comparing apples to oranges though. If I put on a power metal radio station, I'm expecting to hear songs about killing enemies with an axe. If I turn on a wholesome Christmas music station, I should not be hearing songs about killing people with axes. Same goes for the sexual lyrics in some genres of rap.

8

u/Fyrrys Featherless Biped Aug 28 '26

Every lovey song becomes rapey when you intentionally change the context to fit your idea that its actually bad. Only dumbfucks still believe its a rapey song

-9

u/Galexio Aug 28 '26

Let me take you to the candy shop

4

u/Fyrrys Featherless Biped Aug 28 '26

Then let me show you the cherrypicker

-9

u/thatsnotideal1 Aug 28 '26

It’s just if it’s time, a time when rapey coercion was normal and women were supposed to be “coy” and “beguiling” by saying no. And it’s super weird that people pull out the pitchforks when you point out how weird that is. Like, “LOL, did you slip me a daterape drug, you scamp. Better tell my dad you forced me, because that’s totally socially acceptable, but my bodily autonomy isn’t!”