Always important to remember that In 1958 Walt Disney produced “White Wilderness,” part of the studio’s “True Life Adventure” series. “White Wilderness” featured a segment on lemmings, detailing their strange compulsion to commit mass suicide.
According to a 1983 investigation by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation producer Brian Vallee, the lemming scenes were faked. The lemmings supposedly committing mass suicide by leaping into the ocean were actually thrown off a cliff by the Disney filmmakers. The epic “lemming migration” was staged using careful editing, tight camera angles and a few dozen lemmings running on snow covered lazy-Susan style turntable.
See the customary comments about the legend of suicidal lemmings and the Disney “nature” movie above. They are inevitable whenever a cartoonist uses a lemming theme.
In 1953, some years before the Disney movie, SF author Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story, “The Possessed”, which refers to the lemming mass suicide myth, apparently accepting it as fact. But he has an imaginative explanation for this behavior.
Researchers now think that the Tasmanian Tiger which was hunted to extinction because it supposedly preyed on sheep could not have killed any sheep at all because it physically could not bring down any animal that big, it mostly preyed on rodents, chickens and other small mammals.
rmremail 6 days ago
When all your relatives are crazy, you do the best you can.
wallylm 6 days ago
Lemming version of the sole monkey among infinity who managed to type Hamlet.
Ratkin 6 days ago
The first Lemming 787 MAX
Imagine 6 days ago
From then on this day was celebrated as the last day Lemmings jumped from a cliff and drowned.
By the way, they don’t actually do that. It was something Disney faked in a movie.
Concretionist 6 days ago
Isn’t that the DEFINITION of progress? Doing something we’ve always done (or wanted to do) but better?
crosscompiler Premium Member 6 days ago
Mostly the tradition is that of repeating this never-ever-even-remotely-true myth of suicidal lemmings.
keenanthelibrarian 6 days ago
How about letting the rest of ’em know how the invention works.
The Old Wolf 6 days ago
Always important to remember that In 1958 Walt Disney produced “White Wilderness,” part of the studio’s “True Life Adventure” series. “White Wilderness” featured a segment on lemmings, detailing their strange compulsion to commit mass suicide.
According to a 1983 investigation by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation producer Brian Vallee, the lemming scenes were faked. The lemmings supposedly committing mass suicide by leaping into the ocean were actually thrown off a cliff by the Disney filmmakers. The epic “lemming migration” was staged using careful editing, tight camera angles and a few dozen lemmings running on snow covered lazy-Susan style turntable.
hariseldon59 6 days ago
Special guest appearance by the ‘Pearls Before Swine’ lemmings.
sandpiper 6 days ago
They are on the Outer Banks.
Count Olaf Premium Member 6 days ago
Liberal Democrats after watching last night’s debacle, The Count means debate. God Bless America!
Ignatz Premium Member 6 days ago
I’m just here for all the comments about how lemmings don’t actually commit suicide.
WaitingMan 6 days ago
“It’s tradition.” What people say when they are going to do something terrible.
Ken Gagne Premium Member 6 days ago
Did you know you can crossbreed lemmings with flying squirrels? :D
Windfall35 6 days ago
There’s always one person in any crowd that won’t commit….
GentlemanBill 6 days ago
And this, children, is called unnatural selection.
david_42 6 days ago
I recall a SciFi story about lemmings. They were the degenerate descendants of aliens looking for their mother ship, which had sunk.
Hydrohead 6 days ago
Lemings running off a cliff in mass was faked by Disney.
snopes . com / fact-check / white-wilderness-lemming-suicide/
freewaydog 6 days ago
Hey, that one’s cheating!
ArtyD2 Premium Member 6 days ago
Scientologists with Tom Cruise in the middle.
mindjob 6 days ago
Orville but no Wilbur?
mokspr Premium Member 6 days ago
Well, it would have been a good idea…if there hadn’t been a falcon circling over head.
wongo 6 days ago
Ooh! Leming meringue pie! My fave!
Kaputnik 6 days ago
See the customary comments about the legend of suicidal lemmings and the Disney “nature” movie above. They are inevitable whenever a cartoonist uses a lemming theme.
In 1953, some years before the Disney movie, SF author Arthur C. Clarke wrote a short story, “The Possessed”, which refers to the lemming mass suicide myth, apparently accepting it as fact. But he has an imaginative explanation for this behavior.
T Smith 6 days ago
The Divergence of Religion and Science.
KEA 6 days ago
the ones behind are musing… “why didn’t I think of that??”
oish 6 days ago
Like lemmings off a cliff the lemming factoids keep pouring in…
Richard S Russell Premium Member 6 days ago
I myself have never lemmed.
Bilan 6 days ago
That aircraft was named The Lemming Aide.
Lablubber 6 days ago
Tradition is peer pressure from dead people.
lnrokr55 6 days ago
Cool, the lemmings are evolving I see !
Smeagol 6 days ago
Researchers now think that the Tasmanian Tiger which was hunted to extinction because it supposedly preyed on sheep could not have killed any sheep at all because it physically could not bring down any animal that big, it mostly preyed on rodents, chickens and other small mammals.
BigBoy 6 days ago
There’s a strong resemblance to Red Bull Flugtag
David Rickard Premium Member 6 days ago
I guess Robbie Coltrane was right… one day a lemming will fly.
gammaguy 6 days ago
That “plane” reminds me of the Dyna-Soar, from the days when Boeing was a name to be proud of.
arsanlupin 6 days ago
Trump followers are using anvils instead – if not napalm …
sisterea 6 days ago
The lifting body design never really worked.
eddi-TBH 6 days ago
Humans do this metaphorically all the time. The lemmings have better sense.
Pisces 6 days ago
LOL …….. goo one, Wiley!
lindz.coop Premium Member 5 days ago
There’s always that one…