Weirdest Examples of Mass Hysteria

The excellent Dark Roasted Blend posted about three very curious examples of mass hysteria, basically collective craziness. Along with the Mad Gasser of Mattoon who we've already met here on BB, the post tells the tale of the Monkey Man of New Delihi and the Tanganyika Laughter Epidemic. From the post about the laughter epidemic:

Things supposedly started innocently enough. Kashasha, near Lake Victoria in Tanzania in 1962: One girl in a boarding school there told another girl a joke. Maybe, "Have you heard the one about?" or "A Jew, an Indian, and Herbert Hoover walk into a bar …" or "Take my wife, please … " Whatever the setup, the delivery, or punch line, the result was laughter. Whether it was a giggle, a guffaw, a chortle, a snort is irrelevant. The listener found it funny.

But then things went dark, weird, and creepy: one girl laughed, but then so did another, and then another, and then another, and then another.

Weirdest Examples of Mass Hysteria (Dark Roasted Blend)

[#1 posted by Brett Burton , July 1, 2008 11:55 AM]

Violet Blue endless comment thread as example of Mass Psychogenic Illness. 3 pages single spaced, due by Monday.

[#2 posted by Antinous , July 1, 2008 11:56 AM]

Hmmm. Those African lakes are notorious for belching out deadly gasses. Maybe Lake Tanganyika belched out nitrous oxide.

And is anyone else bitter that Tanganyika & Zanzibar changed its name to Tanzania? I know it's been 44 years, but I'm still not over it.

[#3 posted by kuanes , July 1, 2008 12:03 PM]

most of those pictures in the article were more hysteria-inducing then the content within.

[#4 posted by paulm , July 1, 2008 12:06 PM]

The mass hysteria grandad:

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. Charles Mackay, 1841.

[#5 posted by brettholomew , July 1, 2008 12:11 PM]

there was a delovely
Radio Lab segment about the Tanzanian incident

[#6 posted by Chris W , July 1, 2008 12:18 PM]

From the article:

"What's worse is what happened to people scared of the ape: an unlucky short man was beaten by a mod[sic] who suspected him of being the ape"

Am I the only one who's now having visions of TNH chasing a terrified mob of midgets with a very large stick?

[#7 posted by Guysmiley , July 1, 2008 12:28 PM]

All I could think of: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvj1QGqfQyg

[#8 posted by atteSmythe , July 1, 2008 12:46 PM]

I couldn't get through the article for all of the enormous, barely relevant images.

[#9 posted by becw , July 1, 2008 12:56 PM]

There was a great episode of WNYC's Radiolab back in February that had a piece on the laughter epidemic:
http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/02/22

[#10 posted by banjology , July 1, 2008 12:57 PM]

haha damn you BRETT BURTON, beat me to it!

[#11 posted by wurp , July 1, 2008 2:35 PM]

@ATTESMYTHE: Yeah, I loaded the page, paged down once, turned off image loading, reloaded the page, then read the article.

[#12 posted by lolandon , July 1, 2008 3:29 PM]

@10 - I think Brett beat everyone to it...

[#13 posted by David Pescovitz , July 1, 2008 10:02 PM]

@BECW (#9), Thanks for that link!

[#14 posted by acx99 , July 2, 2008 4:47 AM]

"The war on Terror". Beat that.

[#15 posted by serpent , July 2, 2008 6:11 AM]

What about the South African vanishing penis hysteria?

[#16 posted by Oskar , July 2, 2008 7:06 AM]

Not only did Radio Lab cover the laughing epidemic, they also dedicated an entire show to the three times Orson Wells version of War of the Worlds was put on air, all with disastrous results

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/radiolab/episodes/2008/03/07

When they did it in the capital of Equador in 1949, there was a city-wide riot, and when the truth came out, they stormed and burned down the radio-station, killing seven people. Damn, that Orson knew what he was doing.

[#17 posted by 23EStudios , July 2, 2008 5:41 PM]

Might we consider Morgellon's?