Read on Twitter
david had to explain this joke to me and now im obsessed with the episode of punk brewster where her friend gets trapped in a refrigerator https://twitter.com/davidiserson/status/1263984498036760576
watching a psa about refrigerator danger
reading an oral history about the refrigerator danger episode of punky brewster, a show i've never seen https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/74018/oral-history-punky-brewsters-refrigerator-danger
the episode was pitched by a 7 year old who won a contest, inspired by a very real epidemic of kids getting trapped in fridges
"The government had passed laws as early as the late 1950s to ban manufacturing a fridge you couldn’t open from the inside. But in low economic neighborhoods, the old ones were being tossed out in vacant lots. They lasted forever." https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/74018/oral-history-punky-brewsters-refrigerator-danger
jim carrey auditioned for the teacher that teaches punky how to give cpr
"The first time we tried it, we were using an oxygen mask and I had only so much time I could stay in there. Everyone was so afraid, but I loved it. It was like doing my own stunt." -Cherie Johnson, who was 6 at the time https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/74018/oral-history-punky-brewsters-refrigerator-danger
they straight up put the kid in the fridge.
"We taped in front of a live audience. Kids were screaming, 'Oh, no! Get her out!'"
a whole section of the oral history is just talking about the dog they had on set
in the 50s some scientists researched how children would react to being stuck in a refrigerator unprepared. they did this by sticking kids in refrigerators unprepared. they lured them in with cartoons. http://blogs.bmj.com/medical-ethics/2008/09/22/the-good-old-but-somewhat-cold-days/
"Three major types of behavior were observed: (1) inaction, with no effort or only slight effort to get out (24%); (2) purposeful effort to escape (39%); (3) violent action both directed toward escape and undirected (37%)."
the study was called "BEHAVIOR OF YOUNG CHILDREN UNDER CONDITIONS SIMULATING ENTRAPMENT IN REFRIGERATORS" you can read it here https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/22/4/628
they followed up with the kids four years later and found "a low level of anxiety engendered by the tests." the kids they trapped were between 2 and 5 years old
"One-third of the children emerged unruffled, about half were upset but could be comforted easily, and a small group (11%) required some help to become calm."
there's a line in here that was so upsetting im not gonna paste it, but it's the third sentence under "entrapment hazard." skip it if you're a parent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrigerator_death
"Abandoning a refrigerator without removing its door is a criminal offense under California Penal Code Section 402b PC." https://www.losangelescriminallawyer.pro/california-penal-code-section-402b-pc-abandoning-a-refrigerator.html
wow that study where they locked kids in fridges was done 2 years after the US passed the refrigerator safety act, making it mandatory with all new fridges being made able to open from the inside https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/pdfs/blk_pdf_rsa.pdf
