10 Most Bizarre Ways To Become Famous

Michel Lotito died on June 25th 2007 at the early-ish age of fifty-seven, apparently of natural causes. To anyone who knew him over the previous forty-odd years, this might have been unexpected. After all, Lotito had been eating metal, glass, rubber and other indigestible materials on a very regular basis and on a very large scale since he was a teenager.

Once he began performing using this unusual life skill, Lotito became far better known as Monsieur Mangetout. No, he hadn’t named himself after a snap pea: it literally means ‘eat all’, which is literally what he did.

Over a long and varied career in the entertainment industry, Monsieur Mangetout took apart and ate shopping trolleys, a coffin, bicycles, computers, a Cessna 150, skis, televisions, beds and chandelie--

Sorry, what was that? Yes, a Cessna 150, which is a freaking aeroplane. Now, the aeronautically-inclined amongst you may point out that it’s a small, two-seater plane, not a transatlantic people-hauler, and that he consumed the vessel over a two year period, from 1978 to 1980. This may indeed be true. However, it is still a freaking aeroplane.

Lotito claimed that he never suffered any physical side effects from his hobby/day job. He’d eat over 2lbs of so-called indigestible material every day, with a palette cleanser of mineral oil and a whole lot of water. Apparently the inevitable visits to the gentleman’s convenience didn’t cause any major issues either, which probably seems grossly unfair to anyone who’s ever been haunted by the radioactive ghost of a curry the next morning.

Curiously, the name ‘Mangetout’ wasn’t actually entirely appropriate: there were things that Lotito couldn’t safely consume. Apparently hard-boiled eggs and bananas made him violently sick.