Mom and Dad, I found a job!…Oofty Goofty.

–Dave

two different stories about why Borchardt could not feel physical pain:

1. …as the result of being thrown out of a Barbary Coast saloon onto a hard cobblestone street. Goofty reportedly would tour San Francisco, baseball bat in hand, and invite anyone who would listen to kick him as hard as they could for 5 cents, smack him with a walking stick for 15 cents, or beat him with a baseball bat for 25 cents. In 1891 John L. Sullivan (the Boston Strong Boy) struck him across the back with a billiard cue fracturing three vertebrae, and reportedly Goofty walked with a limp the rest of his life because of it. (Oofty Goofty/Wikipedia)

2. In November, 1892, he was claiming that he had sat down in water for several years and had become partially petrified, thus immune to pain. He was betting people $50 that they could not make him cry out in pain by hitting him with a drill. (Oofty Goofty/Wikipedia)

Because, when I’m feeling saucy and strong, I prove I can be smacked with a drill. Sometimes, I go for a good bitchslap from a contractor’s level. Wows the guys every time. –Carla

Oofty Goofty’s entry in a quail eating contest, January 10, 1897, .pdf: Houston Daily Post: Oofty Goofty

and…*insert drumroll*…the Wild Man of Borneo’s entry in the Urban Dictionary! Now that’s 21st century infamy.

parodied in the “Kid from Borneo” episode of The Little Rascals, aka Our Gang:

band names from this episode:

• 21 Languages
• Tar and Horsehair
• Faking Fits
• Wild Man of Borneo
• Borneo Bound