Episode 40.
Throwing Flowers at Performers

Question:

Key Points:

• We did an overview of all the How different Cheeses are made episodes: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
• Throwing "something" at performers started a long, long, long time ago when performers wanted people to throw money at them
• We still have street performers today who want people to put money in their case; this has been happening for thousands of years
• Also thousands of years ago, people started throwing food that had gone bad
• The first recorded event of food being thrown at someone was when one of the ceasars of Rome had a turnip thrown at him
• By the Elizibethan Age, i.e. the late 1500s, it had become common for people to bring rotten vegetables to the theatre with the intention of throwing them at performers who were not performing well
• It was not until later, sometime in the late 1700s, that tomatos became the rotten vegetable of choice: because it is sploshy and easy to throw
• Therefore, the performers would get immediate feedback that they were either doing well (receiving money) or not (receiving rotten vegetables)