What is it Actually Like to Be an Amish Person?

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[jimdeal]

I had to pause this just to bow down to the God Level seamless incorporation of Weird Al lyrics into this script and the deadpan delivery.. Well played Fact Boy, well played!

[amandajones]

I have served with a few prior Amish in the military. They are the hardest working Soldiers ever. One man I served with told us we were his family because his own Amish family shunned him and to them he was dead. So, we made sure he had good birthdays and other special days.

[DFSJR]

I lived in Hersey, PA and I was friends with a whole group of Mennonite people. They were really nice and several times we were invited to one of there worship services. I volunteered at the Hershey Medical center and several times I ran into Amish people in the surgical waiting area. One time a young Amish lady was sitting all alone. I know they avoid talking with English people, but she looked down in the dumps. I sat down by her and with a real low voice asked her if she was OK. She told me her baby son was having open heart surgery so I sat with her till the doctor showed up and told her everything went perfectly. Her husband finally got back to the hospital and she told him how nice I was to sit with her. I was surprised when her husband came over to me and shook my hand and he thanked me for being there with her.

[regularman]

I witnessed 15-20 Amish men build a barn in 8 hours. It was a stack of lumber that morning, and by that afternoon it was a whole ass barn. It wasn’t a massive barn, but it wasn’t a tiny one either. It was very interesting to watch. They are the definition of hard work and dedication.

[rhov-anion]

I feel like Simon dared Daven over a pint, "Do you think you could write a script that uses every line from a song without us getting a copyright strike?" and Daven replied, "How do you feel about talking for an hour about living in an Amish Paradise?"

[liquidpaper]

I feel like you need to have Weird Al in the credits, considering he wrote half of your script.

[MogamiKyoko]

My grandpa passed away last week, but he ran what our family jokingly called his "Amish Taxi Service." He would haul Amish workers and their equipment to different job sites, sometimes several states away, and he often ferried Amish families to various grocery stores and appointments. He was well loved by the Amish community in the area, and it was really nice to see how many came to his funeral.

[janinebean]

There are apparently huge issues with sexual abuse in Amish communities, and survivors are not believed and considered to be troublemakers, especially considering the status of women in their society.

[thehangmansdaughter]

My cousin is an accountant, who keeps the books for two very large Amish businesses. She was hired because the company books were getting too big to be done by hand. She says they're polite, respectful and honest in their dealings, even when others don't extend the same treatment. She and her husband spend quite a bit of their time with the Amish, enjoying meals and chatting, their kids playing.

[romanwiller]

Having interacted with the Amish for a few years I can definitely say that any trade product you might get from an Amish craftsman is absolutely worth whatever the price may be and is easily an example of master craftsmanship.
Particularly in my experience their leatherwork is mind blowing.

[pamelamays]

Weird Al being referred to as "The Great One" is the best part of this video.😎

[emilyc]

It was touched on a few times, but as someone who was raised in a cult for the first 18 yrs of my life who then escaped- I feel like people don't even begin to understand the challenges that are faced to leave a community like this. you INSTANTLY lose housing, have no finances (because money is controlled in cult), have ABSOLUTELY NO support- friends/ family etc because you were kept isolated. You can't just INSTANTLY gain social security- the process usually takes months, you have NOTHING so can't afford to purchase even necessities let alone housing- so you are homeless and sleep on the street and hopefully don't freeze to death... you don't even have clothes to go to a job interview- and if there's somewhere that might give you free clothes you don't have transport to get to it and if you do get there it is WEEKS for the assessment and approval for the items and then you need to be able to travel to various places to get necessities without money or transport. You think you might die, you end up in dangerous situations and on top of all the physical dangers and stress- your mental health is so bad from all the trauma you survived and all the fear you are enduring about all the punishments you have been brain washed into believing you deserve. It is virtually impossible to escape a cult like this that you were raised in... and people don't understand why as adults people don't "just leave"

[samuelmeasa]

Today's drinking game. Every time Simon quotes Amish Paradise take a shot.

[JustNilt]

When I was in the Army, I discovered a small Amish community not too far off base. They had a restaurant that was absolutely AMAZING! Our of basic respect, I never dressed in uniform while there. (They weren't fooled, obviously, since they could tell who was a soldier and who wasn't. This was simply good manners of not rubbing their noses in my occupation.) My wife and I became quite friendly with some of them and later while serving, I was injured and my wife died in a car accident.

One of the most meaningful things during the single most difficult time in my life was a care package from the folks who worked in the restaurant that had a local young man who wasn't Amish deliver it to me at Walter Reed. How they learned, exactly, what happened I never learned but it was truly touching. I've never forgotten them or their gesture. For folks who are often presumed to be standoffish, they aren't. They just live by a different set of rules for themselves.

[davidsantiagotate]

My great uncle took over the family farm in Missouri and sadly the house burned down one night. He hired a group of Amish men who not only built a cabin and porch that were better than the previous ones, but they did it so fast and with such skill that my uncle still marvels at their abilities decades later.
That’s how I learned that if you ever need a carpenter, you look for an Amish person.

[Hughes]

Once my friend and I went on a trip to Toronto from Michigan. We took greyhound and had spent all our money so we were literally starving on the trip home (like where your body aches for food.) This Amish man took pity on us and gave us a bag of Funyuns. We DEVOURED these and thanked him. I noticed he was with a older lady and two younger (Late teens to 20s) girls, all of whom were crying. I asked what was wrong and he told me they had gone to visit his son who was doing Rumspringa and that the son decided to stay in "our world". He said that he's wife, Daughter and the other girl (Son's girlfriend) were bacially mourning him as if he died.
The whole things threw me. This man had effectively los his song and here he was giving food to a pair of idiot punk kids on a bus.

[Wastingsometimehere]

Seems to me shunning a family member, at least for something minor, is more concerned about personal reputation than anything else. Rather selfish than to weigh value to a community. The fact that predators are forgiven more than someone making a personal choice that harms no one, tells me it's not a paradise.

[lindsyfish]

Freedom is terrifying, especially when you've been strictly controlled. It's often easier to conform, stay with your family, and never question your faith. I was never Amish, but was a conservative Christian who married an abusive man. It's not easy being free, but I made the right decisions.

[johnstevenson]

In this area, inbreeding can indeed be something of a problem, sometimes leading to the spread of something called "maple syrup disease". To combat this, local Amish often travel east and eastern Amish often come west looking for potential mates.

[gojeffgordon]

The Weird Al Amish Paradise lines dropped all throughout this is just spectacular! I’m fairly certain nearly the whole song is in this. I’m loving it and laughing too. Hats off to whoever wrote this!