Magical Serial Killer or German Rat Handler? You Decide! (AKA The Pied Piper of Hamelin)

Wicked, Weird, and Grim

What do rat killers, the ice cream man, and peter pan all have in common? Well, if it's a story to be believed, the musical allure of the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

As a haunting and cautionary figure of children's fairytales, this creepy piping dude has quite the reputation, especially in his supposed hometown of Hamelin, Germany. So much so, in fact, that there's even an officially licensed Hamelin Monopoly board game centered around this legendary figure. Hamelin doesn't stop there, with regular reenactments of the piper's luring and even a rat-killer themed-restaurant. What, exactly, about the mass-abduction (if you're being kind) or mass-murder (if you're not) of children is so intriguing? We get into the nitty-gritty of it in this episode, talking about some of the historical facts we have of the event and how some of the cultural spinoffs of this tale occurred.

Stick around at the end for our infamous bloopers, including Ara messing up the German language (maybe on purpose?), Caroline's inability to control her bodily sounds, and a lot of stilted English.