"Tongue Died", Way To Die #438, is the second death featured in "Today's Menu: Deep Fried Death", which aired on December 8, 2010.
Plot[]
During the 2008 recession/housing crisis, foreclosure was skyrocketing, and a scavenger named Max is hard at work, stealing metal from foreclosed homes and selling them for scrap. Max would take whatever wasn’t nailed onto the ground, be it weather vanes, pipes, and even a manhole lid in the middle of a street. While attempting to cut off power to one of the abandoned houses, Max nearly gets electrocuted and is caught by a police officer. Max takes his loot and runs off, but he ends up losing them during the chase. Max succeeds in escaping the obese police officer but ends up falling into an open sewer (the lid of which was stolen by Max earlier in the segment). Max hits his chin on the ground as he falls which causes him to accidentally cut the tongue and the impact of the fall causes Max to break his neck, cut off his spinal cord, asphyxiates as he descends all the way straight to hell. While the police officer on the street above picks up the bloody tongue of Max, he becomes disgusted and turns to see Max in the sewer.
Transcript[]
Narrator: It was a clean escape until...
Pavel Bindra: If you fall down and break your neck and snap critical areas of the neck especially between C3 and C5, that's dangerous, you cut off the spinal cord at this point, your lungs just sit there useless. And you're gonna asphyxiate within minutes.
Narrator: When people bottomed out, Max cashed in. Until he wound up in the hole. What's the matter, Max? Cop got your tongue?
Alternative Name[]
- Also called "Metalhead" on the Spike TV website
Segment Description[]
Description as seen on the Spike TV website
- "A man who makes his living stealing metal from foreclosed houses ends up being chased by cops and falling into an open manhole."
Trivia[]
- Despite taking place in Detroit, Michigan, this death was filmed in El Segundo, California, including Isis Avenue.
- Also, despite being titled Tongue Died, the tongue coming off didn't seem lethal.
- Interestingly, Pavel Bindra doesn't mention Max biting off his tongue.
- The death's title is a pun on "tongue tied," a title also used for Way to Die #517.
Cast and Interviewees[]
- Joey Rassool - Max (lead: intended victim)
- Christopher D. Turner - Policeman
- Jonathan Coogan - Himself (Scrap Metal Dealer)
- Pavel Bindra - Himself (Cardiac Electrophysiologist)
Segment Nicknames[]
- Metalhead (Spike TV)
- Messy Metalhead
Foreign Names[]
- Vollkommen sprachlos (Completely Speechless) - German dub
- Sin Palabras (Without Words) - Latin American Spanish dub
- Deslenguado (Tongueless) - Spanish dub