today you will demystify the fortune cookie let’s talk about that good mythical morning no Chinese takeout meal is complete without what egg roll uh no wontons no dumplings no oh right and that’s it yogi fortune cookies now will the plastic with the amount of fortune cookies and these actually say fortune cookies on them but there’s only one in it ha well advertising with the amount of these that have crossed my lips and gone into my digestive tract I’m and where they’re going to know that I don’t know that much about the fortune cookie right I I feel like more people have eaten fortune cookies than have learned about fortune cookies and we’re about to change that to today we wish we could feed you we wish we could feed you but it’s 2014 it’s not 2040 for when we will be able to feed you some of the camera we’ve got some mesmerizing demystifying staggering factoids about fortune cookies that are going to school you and then we’ve got a fun little treat at the end of ways that we’re going to get down and dirty with the fortune cookie a little cookie at the end I don’t know exactly what I meant by that first thing is the staggering ubiquity of the fortune cookie itself would you believe that there are approximately three billion fortune cookies made each year and this is around the world that’s almost half of all people in the world are represented by a fortune cookie every on an annual basis that’s three hundred and twenty 1 billion calories in fortune cookies produced on an annual basis we’ve got a lot of them here and just so you know we are going to be consuming these with every meal here in the studio for the next three years and it makes more sense when you factor in this can you believe this there are more Chinese restaurants in the United States of America than the number of McDonald’s Burger King Wendy’s Domino and Domino’s and and Pizza Hut restaurants combined believe it over 40 a chatroom here’s another factoid and then we’re gonna go back and forth cuz you got some too right I got some stuff first off fortune cookies are not Chinese at all they are Japanese what are you saying mind blown right as early as the 1800s back suddenly Miranda when a trip what are you saying traditional Japanese rice cracker had been made I mean look at this rice cracker look at this illustration from 1878 you can see on the grill that there are some fortune cookies there oh now these are not sweet like the American version that we know they contain sesame and miso and the fortunes inside originated from omikuji Micucci whatever a little paper fortune that you get for a small fee at shrines and temples around Japan so the two things came together in 1800s in Japan right so it started in Japan but then who is responsible for bringing it to America because it’s a big deal in America well it is disputed there are three different guys who say that they are the ones who brought it back in 1903 see Chiquito of the food gets to do shop in LA said that he was responsible for him and then in 1914 Makoto Hagiwara of Golden Gate park’s Japanese tea garden in San Francisco said he was possibly responsible for it and then later another guy David Young the founder of Hong Kong noodle company in Los Angeles said that he was responsible there’s so much controversy around this that San Francisco’s mock court of historical review attempted to settle mock court mock court state attempted to settle the dispute in 1983 and a piece of evidence was presented in the form of a fortune cookie in the fortune said judge who rules for la not San Francisco judge who rules for LA not very smart cookie so that’s kind of that was a little bit of a pun but long story short we don’t know where it came from it’s an LA San Fran battle well here’s another factoid fortune cookies are not in China even now there’s this great TED talk you can find it online link in the description jennifer lee took a bag of fortune cookies to china and got hilarious responses just candid responses from chinese people who had no clue what these things were hi hi so fortune cookies are very American but why do we as Americans think that they’re Chinese forget our Japanese no really it comes down to war and marketing back when with the bombing of Pearl Harbor after that japanese-americans were it were sent to internment camps so even though they and Chinese restaurants in America were making fortune cookies the Japanese their businesses went bust basically so that left only Chinese restaurants who then took over the bulk they basically began to own fortune cookies and no one wanted anything America at the time wanted anything to be associated with Japan so they associate we associated fortune cookies with Chinese culture and Chinese restaurants really so they saw it as a marketing effort so we’re wrong on both counts right it’s not even it’s actually Japanese but it’s but and we think it’s Chinese but we also it’s just American really it’s just an American thing for the most part okay who this is the really interesting part who writes the fortunes okay you you’ve read a million hopefully you haven’t applied them to your life maybe you have but who’s responsible for them well it’s actually Confucius you would be really you’re going to be really surprised about this because the vast majority are written by just a few people first of all the largest manufacturer of fortune cookies today is one time food incorporated they make 4.5 million cookies a day and they write all the fortunes for theirs and that’s like where most of the fortune cookies come from former vice president of wonton food Donald Lau spent a decade writing fortunes this guy was writing all the fortunes for the company I mean like most of the fortune cookies that were going out there that’s power I mean when you’ve got a mouthpiece like that who knew that the best way to communicate with millions of people was through a cookie he’s probably like one of the most published authors and he doesn’t even realize it how are the most well read so he spent 10 years and then he stopped because of writer’s block I guess that can happen even when you’re writing fortunes but if they don’t come from wonton food they come from two other guys okay they’re not these aren’t teams it’s just two other dudes Stephen Yang and Yann sickly who worked together as a team for a very long time writing fortunes but now they don’t speak to each other they broke because yang went out and started his own company Yang’s fortunes and now he writes like they produce four million fortunes a day like they print all they do is print the fortune didn’t he team up again no but that would have been awesome but it didn’t the team no longer speaks and so there’s an opening there’s an opening for a new fortune cookie writing team well that’d do God that brings me to what we’ve got worked up which I think there is a problem with fortune cookies yeah I mean it’s so fun to get that fortune at the end and then you open the thing up and you want to relate it to your life and it’s it’s really vague the intention is not to see through people but rather to see people through well that I mean that’s a nice why saying yeah but okay that’s something we’re hung about good timber does not grow with ease the stronger the wind the stronger the trees how do I apply that in my life what I want a fortune I don’t work in lumber from now on your kindness will lead you to success that’s closer to a fortune that’s a prescription of action but I say we need fortunes that are more bold they’re more distinct they’re more you know yes you’re put your print where your mouth is and maybe they should be negative why don’t they always gotta be positive so we’ve got some specific may be positive Megan may be negative fortunes that we’re going to take this whole thing over from Yangon Lee and we’re gonna start writing new fortunes in here we’re unveiling them right now with our new company out the yin-yang no we’re not going to call it that here is one look in the back left pocket of the jeans you were wearing three days ago there’s a $20 bill inside see that would I would be so excited at that point hopefully you have an extra pair of underwear with you the chicken you just ate has Salmonella very helpful you a chicken that would you be rude you be very specific while walking casually down the street you will trip and fall into the back of an avocado truck headed to the airport the avocados are being exported to Hawaii bring sunblock Scarlett Johansson is going to call you today at 4:32 p.m. so have your phone ready what would you do if you got a fortune like that I’d have my phone rent you’d anticipate alright tomorrow your wife will but dial you on accident but she’ll talk to you anyway because she needs you to bring home some milk plus she’ll want to know what you said to Scarlett Johansson mm-hmm a black van full of excuse me I’m getting choked up about this you’re choking on a fortune cookie yeah a black van full of clowns with machetes will attack you on your way to work you know sometimes I can’t be positive but then when you get there Scarlett Jones is gonna call ya and that makes up for it okay you will swim in a pool of ramen noodles wearing a golden speedo don’t ask me why there is a donkey in your immediate future rethink your decision to buy a pet alligator sell all your belongings and live in a log cabin see it’s prescriptive sometimes and very specific he who walks is likely to end up at another location that’s a lot like maybe we should scratch that one it’s kind of it’s a little ambiguous that shirt you’re wearing doesn’t look good with those shoes now that’s specific it’s like getting a fortune see me Wow have you ever ridden a llama me neither sometimes you have to stop everything you’re doing and twerk it out there is something in your teeth no other side okay there you got it man who takes advice from fortune cookie needs better source for advice throw too much Sun will make your face look like an old leather wallet yeah that definitely true this fortune cookie will self-destruct in three two one just kidding never play pin the tail on the donkey with an actual donkey we’re on a donkey kick oh you didn’t intend that to happen and I wish it didn’t happen don’t try to eat soup with a fork if you can read this then you are not illiterate day at Beech means sand in shorts don’t be a little broken English again don’t try and do a back flip they’re really hard to do and you might hurt yourself when opportunity knocks make sure the TV volume is down so you can hear it you will think about elephants because I just mentioned elephants and later today you will sneeze in fart at the exact same time this is cause for celebration it is cause for celebration it’s also cause for you liking and commenting underneath this video what did you learn about fortune cookies that has changed your life I’m fishing a little bit but you I’d like to know that your life has been changed by this episode fishing in a koi pond you know what time it is hi I’m Rosie from Rochester New York and it’s time to spin the wheel of mythicality what’s been hiding under these fortune cookies oh it’s a good mythical morning mug you know what we got him here but you can get one for yourself and rattling calm slash store or school there and store it up support entertainment click through to good mythical more we’re gonna play a fun game with all these fortune cookies piecing them together to determine our entire future and yours off camera divas is that thing are we done oh gosh it’s it’s Dusty’s cook fortune cookies out of here where am i green M&Ms where my fortune cookies they were just right here I ordered a bunch of fortune cookies well that’s kind of I mean you’d admittedly you just threw them off to the side they were right there I mean even that’s a little oh so you’re not gonna use your diva voice I see how it is I think this is a lot more fun after you’ve had a big bowl alone a bottle of mein Bowl Alamein please I would have liked it in Bowl another main