Would you like to live in a treehouse
140 feet up? Let's talk about that. ♪ (theme music) ♪ - Good Mythical Morning!
- Close your eyes. Really, right now. Go on. Close your eyes.
Do it! Okay. Now picture a world with no YouTube, no Instagram, no Twitter,
no Facebook, no ChapSnat. - All right? Listen, I know it's scary...
- You said ChapSnat. ...but keep your eyes closed. Just keep
'em closed and now hold out your hands. Hold out both hands. And here you go.
I'm placing something in there. Here it is. Now open your eyes.
It's a spear. Feels good, doesn't it? Feels freeing. Feels like your future has
just been handed to you. - Welcome to this episode.
- I did it all, Link. - Yeah.
- I did everything you told them to do. - Yeah.
- I didn't get anything from it, though. But the reason that you did that is
because today we're gonna be talking about the most isolated people groups
on Eaaaarrrth! Yeah, this is super fascinating. I love to
think about this, and I'm glad we get... - ...to talk about it today.
- "Love to think about it." Follow me to Pa-pow... Pa-pow?
How do say that place in New Guinea? - Pa-poo-uh.
- Pa-poo-uh? Pa-pa-ow. - How do you say it?
- Pa-poo-uh. - (crew member) PAW-poo-uh, New Guinea.
- Papua, New Guinea. - Pa-poo-uh.
- Papa -- Papa, New Guinea! - Yeah, say Papa.
- I know there's a 'u' in there... ...but I can't figure out how to say it.
Let's go to the remote mountainous... ...region of Morobe. Know how to say that,
question mark. Perhaps we'll be the first to make contact
with the Angu people, AKA the Toulambis, - ...AKA the Kukukuku.
- Oh, yes. Never mind. There's already a French dude
there with a camera. Now, in 2011, this video went viral called "Tribe Meets
White Man for the First Time." And this video is somewhat disingenuous,
because this same tribe did allow themselves to be photographed by
e8hnologists in 1979, 1985, and 1997. But it's a YouTube video, so the title
could be misleading. That's how it works. But we're still gonna watch it anyway.
So let's watch this video. "Tribe Meets White Man for the
First Time." And that's the Frenchman... - ...on the right.
- Okay. Yep. Now, whenever I meet an isolated people
group, I do it over a raging river. - On a, on a -- whoa!
- And look, he's gonna fall in! What does he have on? What kind on
weird, backless French vest is this? And he's wearing, like, flip flops.
That guy's like, "Why you... - ...got on flip flops?"
- He's very suspicious... - ...and I would be, too.
- "What is your French vest all about? "Lemme touch it." Whoa. I would be very suspicious to touch
a man with a green visor like that. - Yes. He's made all kinds of...
- It's like, "Come on. What are you?" ...weird decisions about this. This is
your first chance to reach out. "I'm gonna put on my backless vest
and my green visor." - "And my translucent green visor!"
- (laughing) - French people.
- So that's what it will be like. That's our introduction to an
isolated people group. - (laughing) Okay. Okay.
- Right there. It's like time travel. Well, I'll move right on to the Korowai
people, also in "Papa," New Guinea! - (laughing) Yeah.
- Oh, good. Papua. Papua, New Guinea. There's about 3,000 of them, and they
are known for their absolutely amazing... - ...treehouses. Look at these things.
- (Link) Yes. (Rhett) These things are 140 feet in the
air. That's why I said that in the teaser. - (Rhett chuckles)
- (Link) It's crazy! It really is. (Rhett) Okay, this is not, like...
You think your dad's impressive because he, like, went to Walmart and got
"Treehouse Kit" and put it up in some Maple in your backyard? Your dad's
not impressive. THESE people... - ...are impressive. They build --
- If one of these people is your dad, then... - He's impressive!
- ...you're an exception. Four-room houses up there with
fireplaces in 'em. They're building treehouse out of wood with fireplaces
in 'em! And the they sway but they don't burn?
Do they have, like, red plastic slides? - Weeeeeoooo!
- No, no. They don't. - The don't need that!
- They don't need that, man! Don't over-under-sell it. Anyway, it's
not all awesome fun treehouses, because there's speculation that they're
cannibals! Cannibals! Cannibals! - Cannibals! So they have a belief...
- Ugh. ...potentially, that if a person is
possessed by the demon Kakua, they should be killed and eaten.
All the adults join in. They eat the person, except for the
bones, teeth, hair, fingernails... - ...toenails, and genitals.
- Yep, don't eat those. We should probably tell them it's okay
to eat genitals. We've had no... - Uhp. Uhp.
- ...negative effects from doing it. - Uh, the brain is eaten...
- They were not human genitals. - No, they weren't. (laughing)
- Can I point that out? The brain is eaten immediately while
it's still warm. All very spooky... - ...stuff here. No, don't do that.
- I never eat cold brain. - Except on a pizza.
- But there's a lot of people who say... "This is all a hoax! They're the biggest
pranksters in the world! Because they're just trying to keep you people -- you
tourists -- out of here. And so they've come up with these stories about being
cannibals. So nobody knows exatly what to think. But they have let
themselves be filmed. They actually were contacted in the '70s.
They have been subjects of documentary films. And I just don't think they really
look like cannibals. I'm gonna say they're just treehouse people,
not cannibals. I love the trick that they've played
to keep people out, though. - Yes.
- But I'm not gonna risk it and... - ...try to find out. And I'm not...
- Right. - ...that hungry to eat people, either.
- Those treehouses are pretty awesome. - We could go try it.
- Yeah, way high up. I'll tell 'em, "He's possessed
with a demon." In 1996, reports began bubbling up from
deep within the Amazon rainforest in... - ...Brazil of a "mwild" man in the forest.
- (laughing) Hm hm! A mwild man! It took 10 more years of
expeditions to actually establish this guy's existence, but it is a lone dude
who is the last survivor of an unknown tribe. He is (cinematically)
the most isolated man in the world. - Oh ho ho! I see what you did there.
- But they finally found one of his huts. And it was a tiny shelter made of palm
thatch, and in the middle of it, it had a five-foot-deep hole that,
I don't know, he'd hide in, sleep in... - ...catch animals in.
- (Rhett) To make the ceiling seem higher. (Link) We don't know exactly, but they
called him the Man of the Hole. - "We gotta find the Man of the Hole!"
- The Man of the Hole. But he was on the run. Whenever they
would encroach on one of his holes, he would move to a new -- make a new hut.
Make a new hole. And he would keep moving and keep moving. But they finally caught
up with him, and videotaped it. (whispering) Oh, they found the
Man in the Hole! Okay, Rhett. See if you can -- now, that's
not him right there. - Is he the guy with the jeans?
- No, that is no him with the jeans. - And the do-rag.
- Okay, is he the guy with the t-shirt... - ...to the right?
- No, just look. Tell me when you see him. Oh. I believe... that -- whoa -- it --
there -- whoa. - That. Is. Him.
- Yes, with the eyeball. - He's, yeah.
- The guy with the eyeball. - He's the one in the hut.
- That's the Man of the Hole, right there. - And there's his spear tip.
- Whoa, you sure? That's the spear tip with the --
(laughing) Yes, I'm sure. - That is a spear tip. Of the Man of the...
- It could be in finger. - Nope, see it's a spear.
- He could be flippin' the bird. - "Get outta here!" Whoosh!
- It's a spear. Now, on another... ...occasion, dude got too close to that
spear, and he stabbed him. He stabbed on of the dudes who was
on the expedition. - Really?
- And they started calling that guy... - ...the Man with the Hole.
- (laughing) - Man of the Hole made Man with the Hole.
- He really did, though. Listen. The Brazilian government declared
a 31-square-mile area around him to be off-limits. So they gave him his own zone,
which I think is pretty cool. I would like to have a 31-square-mile
radius declared around me sometime. Can I get that, Brazilian government?
Sign me up! I'll the the Man of the Hole. - I need the hole for the headroom.
- His spear was 15 miles long. - That's why they did that.
- (laughing) Weerrk! - (laughing) Here it comes again.
- Gimme another one. - The Pintupi Nine.
- All right. You need to know a little history, here.
The aboriginal people in Australia have been there for about 40,000 years.
But back in the 1950s, they began to make contact with some of these isolated tribes
out there because the Australian goverment was gonna start doing missile testing out
there. So they got all the Pintupi people, which was sort of a subset of Aborigines,
and got them out of there. But there was a group of nine, the Pintupi
Nine, two women and their children, collectively, that were left behind.
They were overlooked. They wandered... - ...the desert for -- probably, yeah.
- Dodging missles?! - All tight time! 30 years until 1984.
- Dang! I'm gonna tell you the account straight
from the mouth of Warlimpirrnga, the oldest brother and the leader of the
group, who said, "We had just speared a kangaroo. We could smell the feces
of other humans in the air." Now, I can tell when somebody has used
the bathroom before me at this place... - ...that we work at. We actually have...
- Yeah. ...a bathroom we call the Dump Bathroom,
because that's where you're supposed to take a dump, and I can tell that
somebody's been in there before me. But that's about as good as my
fecal nose gets. Can you tell if it was me
or someone else? Yes. You have a very
distinctive smell, Link. - Okay, whatever.
- But I don't think I could smell your... - ...feces in the air.
- It's all that kangaroo meat... - ...I've been eating.
- But anyway, he follows the feces... ...smell through the air. It turns out
it's actually a group of Pintupi people who've been Westernized who are
out there camping. - Okay.
- He goes up there. He coughs. (coughs) They run. They scatter, because he had
a really intimidating cough, apparently. - (coughs)
- They go to the authorities, they say, "There's some wild people out there.
We gotta go get 'em." They go out there. They convinced them
to come back with them. And he was like, "Okay, we'll do it. We'll go because we're
having trouble finding food." The nine of them get into a Toyota van,
and they -- I don't know why this detail is included -- but they played the band
Midnight Oil for them, which was an Australian rock band with albums including
"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1." That's... - ...just one of their albums.
- Had to work up to it. - "Species Deceases,"...
- Species Deceases? - ...and "Redneck Wonderland."
- (Link) I love Redneck Wonderland! (Rhett) This is what they know about
Western civilization! Could've been Queen. Could've been
The Beatles. No, you gotta go with... - ..."Species Deceases?"
- I grew up in a Redneck Wonderland. Surprisingly, they have assimilated now,
and they have access to food and water, housing, education,
and medical treatment. And now we have the Mashco-Piro tribe,
the last uncontacted tribe of the Amazon. (Link) Believed to have existed for over
600 years but not sighted until the 80s when a helicopter was flying over. 'Cause
you know how in the 80s, like, helicopters would fly over and, like,
Midnight Oil would be playing like... - ...(making electric guitar noises)
- They were flown by TJ Hooker or... ...whatever his name was
on Magnum, P.I. - No, that was another show.
- Yeah, I get 'em mixed up. - Who cares?
- 2007. Arial photos, including this one... ...of the tribe were taken and they're
just looking up like, 'Uh... - ...Keep going, buddy. Keep it moving."
- Don't you think about stopping. In 2011, video was taken by some
travelers going down the Manú River, and there was a little bow and arrow
pointing in their direction action. - (Rhett) Okay.
- (Link) So they kept going. But the... ...Peruvian government banned tourists
from making contact, but private operators started offering tours?
For people to go and see the tribe up close. Not cool, okay? Especially given
the fact that they're so isolated. Their immunity is not the same as all
these people who are doing and walking up on their shore and leaving trinkets
and illness behind. And so they started dying. So now the government is
having controlled exposures to... - ...increase their immunity...
- Immunity. Okay. ...top help take care of 'em a little bit.
But let the Mashco-Piro Mashco-Piro. - Let 'em do that, people.
- Just, come on! They don't... - ...want your trinkets.
- And if you know of any other... ...isolated people groups, let us know
and we'll go on an expedition. If you ARE one... - ...we're waiting to hear from you.
- If you're watching right now... ...it'd be very ironic that you're
watching a YouTube video. - (laughing) Thanks for liking...
- Not exactly isolated. - ...commenting, and subscribing.
- You know what time it is. - Hi, I'm Pam.
- Hi, I'm Lauren. - (both laughing)
- This is Teddy, and we are from... - ...Sydney, Australia.
- (both) And it's time to spin... - ...The Wheel of Mythicality!
- We have two, count 'em, two... different sticker packs available at
rhettandlink.com/store. Look at that. So many stickers. You could stick 'em
so many places! rhettandlink.com/store. Click through
to Good Mythical More, where we're gonna play a video game entitled,
"All Zombies Must Die." - Ew. (gasp) (high voice) Team!
- It's two-player, Rhett. - We can shoot each other by accident.
- (Rhett) "We're selling the ugly carrot... - ...at the bottom of the bag."
- Oh, I'm down in this bag. You got any more? You got any more
carrots to sell? - Got one. Whoa! Look at those.
- Whoa. You sure that's a carrot? - No, it's great. Look at it.
- All right. - This is at least like 40 bucks.
- We're gonna start the bidding at $17. (auctioneer voice) $17 for the little
carrot that looks like somebody's finger the broke off. (gibberish)
Looks like a little toe that got infected. - Yeah you could put it -- put it -- put.
- The little carrot that looks like... ...a toe that's infected. (gibberish) 17.
(gibberish) 18. Oh, it's 18! - Ok, 19.
- Put it in a key slot. It'll open... ...somethin', I think. [Captioned by Kevin:
GMM Captioning Team]
