Snopes has "An Austrian circus dwarf died recently when he bounced sideways from a trampoline and was swallowed by a hippopotamus. Seven thousand people watched as little Franz Dasch popped into the mouth of Hilda the Hippo and the animal's gag reflex forced it to swallow. The crowd applauded wildly before other circus people realized what had happened."
Allegedly from the Manchester Evening News.

Hey, wouldn't it be great if it wasn't the same guy, and Hilda was an evil serial killer?
🧛
After all, no one ever suspects the hippopotamus...

I tend to think it's BS (or HS, in this case). I don't think it would be possible for an hippo to swallow a dwarf without chewing him (or her) up first. I think their throat would be too small (the hippo's, not the dwarf's). I also don't think it's possible to "bounce sideways from a trampoline" at a shallow enough angle to end up in a yawning hippo's mouth.

I've bounced sideways from a trampoline...although, usually this occurs when there is another bouncer.

Yeah...how the hell do you swallow a dwarf?? I can't even swallow rice w/o chewing it first.

The distinctly un-Thai name of Hilda makes me suspect that the Pattaya Mail has simply recycled the story cited by Snopes. Unless, of course, Boo is right, and Hilda is a roving serial dwarf-eater.

I can't blame the paper, though. What editor could possibly resist the headline, "Hippo Eats Dwarf"? It's right up there with "Jesus wept" for sheer evocativeness.

I'm tempted to believe it. Stranger things have happened.

The Darwin Awards also acknowledges this incident as an Urban Legend. I think this is one for the Mythbusters to solve!

about mythbusters - it would be nice episode - imagine, little version of "Buster" jumps from catapult. Hippo spits it. Then "Buster" is replaced by little more delicious pig. And hippo swallow it.

FYI on Mythbusters,
Apparently the Hippo eat Dwarf idea has already been pitched to them. I haven't seen them do much with animals though, and this one would be extremely difficult to recreate!

"... I haven't seen them do much with animals though, and this one would be extremely difficult to recreate!"

Yeah, and if the hippo choked on the dwarf, you could have offing an endangered species (depending on what kind of hippo was used) on your conscience.

... It probably wouldn't be too good for the little person, either.

If the Mythbusters do recrate this myth they'll most likly make a jello mold shaped like a little person.

A jello mold wouldn't be a good test. It's much easier to swallow a blob of jello than it is to swallow a live human or animal the same size, what with all the bones, skin, fingernails, etc., you'd be trying to get down.

What about catapulting 80 lbs of ground beef shaped into the form of a small man through the air, and seeing if a hippo will swallow it? The trick will be to avoid getting the hippo too angry from repeatedly hitting it with the meat. Hippos can get violent when angry.

This is fake. I told my grandmother about it and she said that hippos don't eat meat.

Dany,

Read the story! It, or no one else, said the hippo ATE any meat. Swallow, gag reflex, yawning...

Joe, Thanks for the link.

Char???, Sorry forgot to look at spelling. I promise not to ressurect that thread if you help kill the Natash / X-ray vision thread. That argument has WORN THIN.

😉

Hippos do eat meat. Check out Gerald Durrell's "The Stationary Ark" for an account of Hercules the hippo's appetite for tapirs.

summing up a possibility:

discovery channel
mythbusters
1 dwarf
1 hippo

and let

Doesn't a gag reflex *stop* one from swallowing?

The only way we can truly prove or disprove this myth is to take a road trip to Thailand and find one of the 1000 (7,000 in some accounts) eye witnesses.

Who's with me?

And who's paying, because I can't!

Did the Snopes article say where the incident they reported on happened? If they didn't mention where, it could have happened in Northern Thailand since the Thai people enjoyed foriegn acts when I was stationed there thirty years ago and I doubt that has changed much. However, Pattaya is in Southern Thailand, they probably wouldn't have a first-hand report, just something off the wire. So it might be the Snopes report reprinted. Or maybe, the Pattaya Mail changed the report and located it in Thailand where their readers could be more interested in the story. Nah, journalists would never doctor a story like that.

The snopes article didn't really analyze the hippo-eats-dwarf tale. It was just included in a long list of odd stories reported by newspapers. Their version had it as an Austrian circus, as reported by the Manchester Evening News. There was no date for the article given. But everything I can find on the internet about this seems to source the Thai version of the story.

Hippos also put out fires.

Dooohhh, I meant Rhino not hippo!!!!!

I am sort of confused. On one side, if the Hippo had swallowed the dwarf, he probably could have escaped from the hippo's gut in time. On the other, much stranger things have happened, like ligers, or mega-tsunami's...

Who's ever been to a circus with a hippo in? What does a hippo do in a circus - magic?

It eats dwarves, I'm guessing.

You are Fred MacCauley and I claim the

"Police said the trampoline has been sent for forensic analysis"

Yeah, right.

This reminds me of the novel written about 1984 called "Dwarf Rapes Nun, Flees in UFO" about a sleepy midwestern paper that gets bought out by a Rupert Murdoch type. The new editor is a crazed Brit who is on a search for the Ultimate Tabloid Headline.

I am pleased to confirm that this story is indeed true and that I am actually the midget in question. The only error in the tale is the omission of the fact that I did in fact survive the incident after being secreted from the hippos rectum following a intensive 3-day ordeal which involved being digested alive.

Thankfully as a child I was taught how to hold my breath for days at a time by an elderly Tibetan monk by the name of Keith, I believe it was this training that saved my life whilst inside the hippo.

I hope this clears things up.

Grasshopper,
Good to hear your news and to find that, despite your apparent inattention during my lectures, you were actually paying attention and have consequently benefitted.

"Recognize that all words are part false and part true, limited by our imperfect understanding. But strive always for honesty within yourself."
Master Keith

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