It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s…. some dude who tied a bunch of balloons to a lawn chair??? On July 2, 1982, Larry Walters got his 15 minutes of fame when he tied 42 weather balloons to a lawn chair and took flight. Armed with little more than a bottle of Coke, a pellet gun, a radio, and a bag of beef jerky, Larry rose nearly 16,000 feet in the air. Onlookers couldn’t believe their eyes. Larry Walters wasn’t afraid. It was a moment he had dreamed about his whole life. Remember, kids, history hoes always cite their sources! For this episode, Norm pulled from: “1982 Honorable Mention: Lawn Chair Larry.” Accessed September 15, 2026. https://darwinawards.com/stupid/stupid1998-11.html. Brady, Caroline. “After a Time, Balloon Rider Still One to Watch.” News-Pilot, November 6, 1991. Carlson, Timothy. “Up, up and Away in His Beautiful Lawn Chair.” Los Angeles Herald Examiner, July 3, 1982. Catalibanes. Crónicas de la yihad separatista. Larry Walters’ Fly. 2013. 02:19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFFVVo9usFY. “Chair, Lawn, Larry Walters | National Air and Space Museum.” Accessed September 11, 2026. https://airandspace.si.edu/collection-objects/chair-lawn-larry-walters/nasm_A20181388000. Furillo, Andy. “Lawn Chair Pilot Still Hasn’t Really Come down Yet.” Los Angeles Herald Examiner, July 20, 1982. Jones, Jack. “Postscript.” The Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1988. La Guire, Lennie. “FAA’s First-Class Fare for His Flight in a Lawn Chair.” Los Angeles Herald Examiner, April 23, 1983. “Mark Barry.” Accessed September 15, 2026. https://www.markbarry.com/#lawnchairpilot. News-Pilot. “Lawnchair Balloonist to Relive High Flown Adventure.” January 5, 1983. Oliver, Myrna. “Man Who Flew in Lawn Chair Dies.” The Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1993. Overnight Drive. LARRY WALTERS - Interview with David Letterman (1982). 2018. 11:00. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wWds5r4DZs. Plimpton, George. “The Man in the Flying Lawn Chair | The New Yorker.” May 24, 1998. https://web.archive.org/web/20220331081234/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1998/06/01/the-man-in-the-flying-lawn-chair. San Diego Reader. “A Man Can’t Just Sit Around.” Accessed September 11, 2026. https://www.sandiegoreader.com/weblogs/beyond-the-big-metal-fence/2009/oct/18/a-man-cant-just-sit-around/. Stilwell, Blake. “What Happened When a Wannabe Pilot Was Denied Entry in the Air Force.” We Are The Mighty, September 12, 2019. https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/larry-walters-balloon-pilot/. The Tribune. “Lawn-Chair-in-the-Sky Guy: ‘I’m a Settled-down Dude’ 10 Years Later.” July 3, 1992. Turk, A. Marco. “No What Ifs about Larry’s Life.” North County Times, October 28, 1988.