A Return to Ong’s Hat

WARNING: Some listeners may be disturbed by the fact that at no point in this episode do Mike D and Andrea mention diarrhea. This is a diarrhea-free episode. Proceed at your own risk.

Longtime subscribers to our Patreon may remember an early episode of South Jersey Is Also the World where Andrea and Gethard went deep into the history of Ong’s Hat, a South Jersey ghost town so tiny it doesn’t even appear on most maps. Its history is a fascinating one, with debatable origins involving bootlegging and hat-based feuds as well as an early Internet legend regarded by many as the genesis of Alternate Reality Games. Since that episode, Ong’s Hat has popped up in a few other places, so we figured it was time for a revisit. While we do discuss the above in some detail, this episode is really about urban legends, how they spread, and why we seem to love them so much more in Jersey. We also discover something about our own history that has the potential to crack this whole Ong’s Hat mystery wide open. We need your help on that one though, so have a listen and let us know what you think!

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