Lateral with Tom Scott - 28: An 'out of this world' lecture

Episode Date: April 21, 2023

Melissa Fernandes, Sabrina Cruz and Taha Khan from 'Answer in Progress' face questions about crafty clocks, remunerative records and veiled video games. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderful answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit https://www.lateralcast.com. HOST: Tom Scott. QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe. RECORDED AT: Podcasts NZ Studios. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett at The Podcast Studios, Dublin. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Josh Halbur, Lewis Tough, Nick VanAcker. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2023. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brown can help you think, white can help you work, and pink is soothing. What is it? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Welcome to the show that provides you with all the useless information you never knew you needed to forget. Sort of like the internet, but with more personality and fewer cat videos. Today I am joined by some returning players who all know each other, who all run a big project together. It is the team from Answer in Progress. And I never know which order to introduce you in. I try and mix it up every time. So I'm just going to go with the order that you appeared on my screen. We start with Melissa Fernandez.

Hello. How are you doing? I'm good. I'm nervous to be back though. You're obviously coming back on the show. How was it last time? How do you feel about being back? It was fun last time. I realized my trivia knowledge or my puzzle knowledge is not very good, but I'm still here to compete and win against these two. It's a competition, right? Because it is a competition. Absolutely. I love it when the players are up against each other and not just ganging up on me.

This is great. Also from Answer in Progress, and clearly getting into the competitive spirit immediately, Sabrina Cruz. I'm here to win. I have never shut up about getting it in one on that first question, and I'm going to do it again.

You came in and said, I have never shut up, and then you paused for just a moment and I was like that can't be where the sentence is ending it can't be

oh Taha and Melissa wish and thus rounding out the team from another continent entirely Taha Khan I'm just happy to be here I'm playing I'm playing the up moral high ground here I'm just happy to be here. I'm playing the moral high ground here. I'm just happy to be here. So, you know, if Sabrina's overly competitive, you know, I can't be held liable.

Well, we'll see how you get on with today's questions. The questions I have in my script today are a bit like a cheeseboard. They are addictive, varied in texture, and they've got some mustard smeared on them, although that's mostly from my lunch. Let's take a bite out of question one, which is this. In 1922, the Austrian physicist Lise Meitner gave her first public lecture on the significance of radioactivity in cosmic processes. She was surprised by the large number of women in the audience, caused by an error in a newspaper. What was it?

I'll say that again. In 1922, the Austrian physicist Lise Meitner gave her first public lecture on the significance of radioactivity in cosmic processes. She was surprised by the large number of women in the audience caused by an error in a newspaper. What was it? Now, I heard gasps there. And here's the thing, I heard Melissa gasp first. So just, just without saying what the answer might be yet, who in the crowd thinks they might have the answer to this one? Melissa? I think I know it.

I feel like Melissa and Sabrina have both got it because they pointed at each other. Well, it's just, maybe, maybe this is one thing. It might be a bit of lateral thinking. Okay. Taha, do you have any idea whatsoever? No. Yeah.

I'm, I am lost. And it does, it is interesting that the two women got it, you know? So I'm like. On a question about a female physicist giving a public lecture with a large number of women in the audience. I just want to know why. I also, it can't be, it can't be this. It can't be what I'm thinking.

Because that can't be the case. It can't be what I'm thinking either. So now I'm like, what do I not know as a man? Normally, normally if two people, if two people get the question immediately, we'll just normally throw it out and start again. But in this case, I feel like we want to play this out. Melissa, what's your guess?

I think there was a typo in the newspaper and it probably said, no men allowed or something. That's not what I thought. I thought it was about cosmetic instead of cosmic. One of you is right. I mean, definitely Sabrina is right, surely. Yes, I'm sorry of you is right. I mean, definitely Sabrina is right. Surely. Yes. I'm sorry, Sabrina is right.

So, for the second time on question one, let's go! All the pressures are off now, let's go! Tom, our whole year is ruined. I will hear about this for the rest of time.

Why did you gasp? Me? Yeah, you immediately like... Because I was appalled by that. I was like, that can't be the answer. Where did you think the typo would have taken place? I don't know. It was just the first thing that came to mind.

Like, that's just an easy typo. Cosmetic and cosmic are two different words hang on hang on hang on hang on you think that cosmetic and cosmic cosmetic and cosmic versus not wrong taha she's not wrong cosmetic and cosmic are two different words that's true but the different it's like either either you can misspell cosmetic or you could accidentally type no men. I mean, that's happened a lot of times for me. I've just been signing off an email and it's been, kind regards, no men.

Oh, sorry. Yes, it was promoted as radioactivity in cosmetic processes, which actually kind of implies that your makeup may be radioactive, which really did attract a lot of women. Yeah, that's the thing that I'm confused by because if I saw that, even if it said cosmetic, I'd just be like,

I don't know what to do with this information. And then I'd put it down and walk away. I mean, it's 1922, so... Yeah, it's just like, you know, product recalls. I understand that they're important. However, if something that I had consumed was recalled, I've never heard about it. So what if it's bad, though?

You're just going to live and wait for the effects to happen? I mean, there is not much you can do about it at that point, other than maybe make a note for your doctor to check in about 20 years. Exactly. Sabrina sounds like the type of person who won't go to the dentist because then it makes it real. I haven't been to a dentist in like three years. I suspected.

This is a personal attack. It's like, I have toothaches, but like I don't have any cavities because I haven't been to the dentist. Do you sometimes worry that your teeth are loose? No. I go to a dentist every six months. You had like a month of tooth issues, Taha.

You can't even talk. I learned my lesson. Yeah, I learned my lesson back in my teenage years. Like, oh, this is why you go to the dentist. And now I go to the dentist. You learn these things. I appreciate it, Sabrina. You may have never learned that lesson, and I hope you never have to. I have never had a cavity, and I'll never have a cavity if I never see a dentist again.

Yes, in 1922, Austrian physicist Lise Meitner gave a public lecture on radioactivity in cosmic processors, and the newspaper typoed it as cosmetic. Sabrina, just to try and cut you off at the pass from immediately getting the second question straight away, let's go to your guest question here. What have you got for us? All right, y'all ready? So, Abby and Bella can't decide where to eat. Abby takes out a US one cent coin and says,

let's use this to decide fairly. Abby is able to give herself an 80% chance of winning without Bella suspecting anything. How? Let me say that again. Abby and Bella can't decide where to eat. Abby takes a US one cent coin and says, let's use this to decide fairly. Abby is able to give herself an 80% chance of winning withoutlla suspecting anything how can you have a loaded penny like like like one of those that was the end of my thought can you have a loaded penny i don't know i i i agree i think i my suspicion was maybe all one cent pennies are loaded like what maybe one cent pennies have a unique characteristic which means like maybe the

the the head on one of the sides whichever side the head is is like extremely bulbous the guy just has a massive forehead he's like mega mind so it's just like it's just weighted slightly differently and so if you flip i feel like if you flip a coin though it's it's going so fast through the air as it flips and flips and flips, and you just kind of catch it at some point. It's not going to be facing down for like 80% of the time. Yeah. Sabrina's making faces as if we've like, you know how like with a metal detector, like it would go beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep,

and then go back to normal? Like I feel like we've hovered over the answer. Also, how do you buy a loaded coin? I imagine there's something magic illusion shop somewhere out there where you can buy coins that always land one way down or something like that. But even then, you have to let it drop on the floor. Because if you just snatch it out of the air, that surely will be random. It's not going to go...

But isn't that just as random as it dropping on the floor? Because it's just something stopping the object, no? I feel like if it's got time to bounce around on the floor, it might always land butter side down like toast does. That's a terrible analogy because that's based on the height from the worktop. So ignore me. That was a bad deduction.

We'll just move on. Unless they put butter on the penny. Yes, that's what she did. She smeared butter on it. You've locked it in. But it is interesting. Or just attached it to a cat and then threw the cat off the... No suspicion here.

Why do you have my cat? I will say, though, that Melissa and Taha might have been leaning a little bit more in the right direction. Because, let me read the question again. And this might be a bit of a hint. Might not be a bit of a hint. I don't know. They can't decide where to eat.

She takes out a US one cent coin. And she says, let's use this to decide fairly. After that, all I say is, Abby is able to give herself an 80% chance of winning without Bella suspecting anything. There's something in that that you should think about. Did you actually say that you were flipping a coin there? Was that part of the question? Or did you just imply heavily that they were flipping a coin? What did I say?

Play back the G. I see what's happening how else do you use a coin to decide which way to go you could I'm thinking like a spin the bottle type situation

but maybe there's arrows on the coin or something or you could do the thing where you like spin the coin on a table and it like and then like and then and then it sort of lands boom that's it that that was it and it was the weighting of the coin yeah and i think it's interesting that you immediately latched on to the fact that it wasn't just a specific coin it was every coin. And that's the thing. US one cent coins, you even said it, the head is slightly heavier,

which means it's always more likely. And was it Megamind? It was Megamind. It's Abraham Lincoln. The same thing. It's fine. None of us are American here. We can say stuff like that. I think it's the big hat hat does he wear the hat on the penny and one of us is not uh is not gen z and thus did not get the megamind reference at all just i'm assuming it's assuming it's some guy with a big head that's yeah he's a cartoon character cool okay he's got a big head very heavy causes it to topple over consistently on the head side down, which means that tails are pretty consistently able to win 80% of the time.

I'm pretty sure that it's Abraham Lincoln on the one cent in the US because one of the reasons they haven't got rid of the US one cent is that one of the states, which was Lincoln's birthplace, is just really angry at the idea that he might not be on the coins anymore. But is the hat on it?

That may be true, or it may just be something I heard on an episode of The West Wing once, which again, sets me out as not being the same generation as the rest of the people in this call. I can't stress enough, I've wanted to watch The West Wing. There's no way to do it legally in Canada.

There's no way to do it legally in the UK either. I've also wanted to watch The West Wing, there's no way to do it legally in Canada. There's no way to do it legally in the UK either. Like, I've also wanted to watch the West Wing, but it's like, am I going to buy it? So, Tom, how did you watch it? Yeah, Tom. Because I'm old enough, I watched it on actual television when it came out. What's actual television, Tom?

Is that like YouTube? Is it like, it's like streaming on demand? It's like Twitch on demand it's like twitch but like i'm not i'm not giving that any of the attention it deserves um yeah so basically abby would say heads you win tails i win and the thing is about us one cent coins is that they're weighted in such a way that the head is slightly heavier, so that around 80% of the time, if you spin a coin on a table, heads will land face down, and then the tails up. So she wins. Sneaky. Great button. Next question's from me. Good luck, folks. The funk band Wolfpack released an album. However, even their indie band's diehard fans haven't listened to it.

Despite that, the band used the profits to fund one of their tours. How? I'll say that again. The funk band Wolfpack released an album. However, even their indie band's diehard fans haven't listened to it. Despite that, the band used the profits to fund one of their tours. How? And I will say that the funk band Wolfpack

is really difficult to get your teeth around. Congratulations to you. The odds of me coming out with the funk band Wolfpack at some point in there, or just dropping an F-bomb because I got my vowels mixed up. It's just very, very close to happening throughout that.

But yes, the funk band Wolfpack. Was there just no sound on the album? Was it just an empty album? Oh, God damn it, Sabrina. Wait, what? Shut up. No, you're joking. I'm not joking.

They bought an empty record? Well, you know, if it's a charity thing, like people would be down to clown. I'm so sorry. This is the sound of a question document being literally just screwed up and just thrown out behind me. That's... It's whimsical

if it's a one. I feel mean if it's two. Okay, so, here's the thing. You have the first part of this, but it isn't the full story. Okay. You've missed a little bit of that, which means I now have to unscrew this document.

See, the thing is, what I should have done was got a different sheet of paper because this is mostly an audio show. I could have screwed up any sheet of paper.

I could have screwed up the last question. I didn't. I screwed up the actual question that I now have to refer to. Because you are an honest video content creator. Everything is real.

Nothing is faked on this show. He's honest. He doesn't lie to you. He does his own stunts. Thank you for the endorsement there. There is a couple of extra things that you can work out about that. But yeah, Sabrina, you've got the first bit of that.

It was a completely silent album. Okay, so... So why were people still... Like, why were they still making money off this? So I have a couple of theories. I don't remember what the artist was, but... The funk band Wolf... See? It's difficult!

It's really difficult! The funk band Wolfpack. But there was that artist who released a single that was four minutes of silence as a protest against the X Factor winner that year in the UK. And they were basically getting people to stream it or buy it for charity. But I assume if this was Wolfpack, it could have been more recent

and it was a streaming thing where they just got people to stream silence. Wolfpack just released an entirely silent album. And yes, it was on Spotify for streaming. So if you did not want to listen to music, you could put that on instead. Oh. I mean, I am taking issue with the phrasing of the question, but would you not consider that listened to? Well, the streaming services did.

That's fair. But did you hear it? Maybe I heard it, but I didn't listen to it. You know what I mean? Deep in. So yes, each stream of the entire album would earn them about five cents, which is apparently the going rate for streaming these days.

They ended up with $20,000 from their audience listening to Silence, and I assume that that loophole has now been closed. I'm curious if it's like, if it was also an act of protest, or if it was like, just an act of like, this is a thing that exists, we can exploit this and then put the proceeds towards charity.

It wasn't towards charity. It was towards funding that tour. Oh, I think it's a great idea to have this album be just silence because I would love to like queue up a bunch of music in a party and then just have like some songs be silent. So it's sort of that awkward times just like stops. I think it'd be really funny. Do not hand Taha the ox. There was a wonderful project a few years ago called the Boiling Frog, which was a Spotify thing where if you wanted guests to steadily leave your party, you would put in a song that was lovely and then put in a song that they absolutely would hate.

And it would give you like a 10, 12 song playlist where all the transitions seem reasonable. At no point is there a shocking jump in genre, but by the end of it, you're listening to something terrible. And it's just kind of, just ease the guests in. So at some point they go,

I think I should leave now. It's like restaurant music at 1.45. Like, please leave. We're going to play the sad stuff. We're trying to clean. Yes, the funk band Wolfpack released an entirely silent album so their fans could listen to it

when they didn't want to listen to anything and they could take the money. Melissa, we're coming to you next. Let's see what you've got. All right. Two men meet for a coffee in Malta. Sorry I'm late, says Nick. The church clock was wrong. No, it wasn't, replies Joshua. I'm sure it was correct. They go outside to find that both of them were right.

How is that possible? And what is the tradition behind it? I'll say it one more time. Two men meet for coffee in Malta. Sorry I'm late, says Nick. The church clock was wrong. No, it wasn't, replies Joshua. I'm sure it was correct.

They go outside to find that both of them were right. How is that possible? And what is the tradition behind it? I know a lot of listeners are going to be assuming that I'll get this immediately because I have previously ranted a lot about time zones and weird time stuff. And I'm happy to say I have no clue whatsoever. Just a complete blank. Well, I'm immediately like I have now this is where my North American education and geography knowledge will really, really get the Europeans going. But I have no idea where Malta is. You said it was Europe. You got that one right.

That's where a lot of places are, Tom. I guess. Got it in one. Malta is just south of Italy in the Mediterranean Sea. Okay. The thing that's really throwing me off in the question is that the people were named. I know that's like, I hope that's not part of the question,

but it's like, oh, it was like Nick and Craig or something. And I was just a bit like why are they those are not maltese names yeah they're sort of like generic first names as if it's kind of like a math question in a textbook yeah yeah it's like one of them has 17 watermelons i wouldn't dig too deep into this it's a very very soft clue in the right direction the name one of the names might give you a clue shut up nick might give you a clue but i highly okay what do i know about malta what do i know about malta uh almost the only thing i know about malta is that uh they were given a british award for bravery as an island and i think it's the george cross which is like our highest medal for bravery was given to the entire nation of the

island and they put it on their flag that's nothing relevant to this but you know what? I've got one multifact. That's it. How could these two people have seen different times? It's either like, is the clock face like mirrored in some way? That it almost like, if you look at the numerals on it. I don't know. I don't know. I got two already. That's good. I'm done.

I'm checking out. Tap it out. This is like Usain bolt retiring in their prime um okay is it this makes no sense but i'll say it anyway is the clock face like a like one of those shadow clocks no sundials's the word. I think shadow clock is a more, a better word. You know what, you're right. Shadow clock sounds cool. You know, it's like, is this from Lord of the Rings or something? So is there anything to do with shadows coming into this?

No, but it has something to do with the clock. Does the clock look different from like a watch? Not my watch, because I can't read an analog clock. That is very Zoomer of me. We had this argument last time, didn't we? I think we had that. Yeah. Okay.

I have an idea. It's like a geometrical thing. If you look at the clock on different faces, it's like, maybe it's like, it's like Big Ben, let's say, and it's like a square, not a square, but you get what I mean, like a cube. And the different sides of the clock give different times because that's like respecting maybe like some time zone that they're going through, or like it could be like a British time and then a non-British time.

So Britain used to have a different like noon for every town because there was no central time service like we're talking like start of the 20th century my boy sanford fleming i'm sorry there was there was no central time sorry who was sanford fleming he did the time zones he made time zones i didn't know that i could be wrong but for a long time Because there was no central time authority It would just be when the sun was highest in the sky At your town That would be when the clocks would be at noon

And then the railways came along And timetabling came along And then we had, for a little while, each town would have Local time and railway time And then eventually Railway time won and we got A single time zone for the whole area so i'm wondering if malta has something like that where they have like a traditional noon time zone and

then they have an actual official oh now we're on central european time and thus our clocks get set to both we're getting kind of warmer are there two clocks so sabrina is actually right here there's there are two clocks but why so here's my thing i feel like on melissa's like question card and the clues she doesn't have the clue nick is a relevant part of the story but somewhere in melissa's mind knowing melissa she has made a connection to nick okay and was like nick is relevant in some way so is it is it something to do with stealing like is one of the clock did someone steal one of the hands of one of the clocks and that's why the word nick, Nick is quite a British word to say. Melissa's not British.

So I don't know. I feel like I'm getting quite meta here. I was thinking St. Nicholas, or it might be something to do with Christmas or something like that, but I don't know what the... No, because she'd also think of Nick because she likes National Treasure

and that has Nicholas in it. The entire, and the entire clock is in a cage there we go yeah we solved it the other thing i was thinking is like why would there be two clocks is it because um there are like two warring factions of some sort on the island so i don't know whether it's like a religious thing where the two clocks observe like different religious times i don't know if religions have different times um or like different calendars yeah we're getting we're getting scalding we're getting super close is there like a catholic time and a protestant time yeah everyone knows that cst

and pst okay this is this is something that particularly maltese churches do so there's CST and PST. Okay. This is, this is something that particularly Maltese churches do. So there's two clocks. Why? Is one of them like, here's the time for the ceremony or like the service. And it's just always at that time.

Then the other one is like the church service. Here's the time for it is on the clock. The other one is the actual time of the like time in reality so they can like be like hey may everyone come to church at at two and then they'll just like set the time at two it's just a it's just a fixed thing that reveals that's just like this is the yeah like one is a fixed clock and then the other one is the actual time and so the guy was looking at the other time being like well i've still got loads of time you've got to give us a hint for the last bit of this we're not gonna we're not gonna blunder into it okay the name nick or old nick

is another word for devil is it is there devil yeah demon dowers everyone knows about demon dowers you can't be nodding at me. That's like a Gen Z meme. I'm just, I was making a joke. Not that, not that one. Not that one, not that one. But that's kind of right. Yeah.

There's God's time and the devil's time? So there's real time. And then there's another random time that these churches put on to confuse the devil stop it it's a tricky trick so hang on that's really nice is that is that why nick so nick is the devil and that's why he's late or was the other person late in the riddle what was the other name was was the other name chris the other name was joshua but nick was the other person late in the riddle? What was the other name? Was the other name Chris? The other name was Joshua, but Nick was the one that was late. Yeah. It would have been great if the other guy's name was Chris, though.

Yeah. Oh, that's really nice. How do you trick the devil with a clock when there's the other clock right there? What if I... Is it if you fall for it, you are the devil? Because I would. Oh, no. right there what if is it if you fall for it you are the devil because i would exactly oh no so traditionally maltese churches have two clocks the one on the right tells the correct time and then the one on the left is the devil's time um because the left side is sinister yeah it's

yeah it's intended to it's it's made to confuse the devil so they can't turn up to steal anyone's soul. Somebody got to warn Joshua. You just got to tell him the devil just can't look left or can't look right. I don't know. Yeah, that's where we get the word sinister from. Because the Latin is dexter for right and sinister for left. And the left hand and the left side is the devil's side. And that's where we get sinister.

Next question has been sent in by a listener. Thank you to Nick Van Acker. In 1955, the countries of India, Turkey, and Yugoslavia cut, processed, and sold 11 square miles of flowers, 17 million individual plants, to the United States. They went into storage untouched for the next 40 years. Why? One more time. In 1955, the countries of India, Turkey, and Yugoslavia cut, processed, and sold

11 square miles of flowers, 17 million individual plants, to the United States. They went into storage untouched for the next 40 years. Why? Isn't this, is this not just like the thing that they have where they store one of every seed so that like when the apocalypse comes, they can like regrow the whole of the world? They don't need 17 million individual plants to do that. There are seed banks, absolutely. There's one in Svalbard, there's one in the UK, there's quite a few all over. But this was 11 square miles of plants.

Of the same type of seed? Well, it's maybe a little early to to start drilling down to questions like that that's fine so wait it's just plants there's just a bunch of plants flowers flowers but there's no we we don't know if it's the same flower they just did a lot of flowers was it you know I wonder if it's cultivated specifically for the U.S. as the recipient, or if the U.S. was just like, don't mind if I do, and then just put it away. I wonder if it's something to do with heroin, because poppy seeds are grown in those places.

And so was it like a medical thing where they were like we need opiates because i know they the usa were all about they love what their opiates over there well unfortunately that was poorly phrased but you know um and so was it sorry i'm just gonna take a moment just to dissect the phrase they love their opiates over there. You know what I mean. I mean, okay, there's an opioid crisis. I know exactly what you mean. It's another way of saying it.

Yeah, we can make jokes about this, but also at the same time, we probably shouldn't. You are actually way closer than you might think with that. It is one type of flower. Maybe poppies. Yes, Melissa, poppies. And the reason is what Taha said. It was for opium.

Why? So it is for opium. Why? So if it wasn't going to be used by the US, was it like a harm reduction thing that they decided to do? Where they were just like, in these areas, this is an act of the u.s being the u.s if you know what i mean they're like let we'll just buy this so that

it's not in the market in those areas um they were put into storage untouched i'm not sure that counts as not being used did they think were they like wait, what date was it? I'm so bad with dates. This was 1955. Were they like anticipating, were they anticipating like another war? And they were like, let's stockpile on painkillers. Yes. But in 40 years, so they scheduled a war for 40 years down the line? Did they keep it?

Because this is Cold War times now, right? Right. So they were just like, in case something goes down, we have it in the back of our pocket. Between the three of you, you've worked this one out. It was a painkiller stockpile. We did it right, guys. They kept some morphine as well, but this was a painkiller stockpile in Fort Knox. Why, after 40 years, might they have not just kept them in storage? The flowers went bad. Yeah, so they converted them into actual morphine. So there is still, I think, a United States morphine stockpile in Fort Knox, or at least if there isn't, no one's told our question writer about it. Very neat. Yes, in 1955, the US bought an enormous amount of poppies

in order to have a stockpile of opiates, just in case the Cold War got hot. Our last guest question comes from Taha. Whenever you're ready. Okay, so if you look at the media cases on a shelf, three of the titles are Grand Theft Alex, Call of Drona, and Aplaros Creed. Where are you?

If you look at the media cases on a shelf, three of the titles are Grand Theft Alex, Call of Drona, and Aplaro's Creed. Where are you? Pacific Mall. Niche reference for those with GTA in Canada. This is some knockoff game store. Are you on like Steam on like April 1st?

No, you're definitely in it. It's like, where are you? You know, you're looking at media cases on a shelf. So it's a physical location. Yeah. Okay. Because these are spoof names of popular video games where would we see these what was the second one call of droner which is call of duty but the uninitiated i've only just realized that that two of these are video games not films because

i don't have video game knowledge so uh cool this is a list of video thank you this is a list of parody titles for video games so we have we got there video game titles with alex droner and what was that last one a palero a plaro a plaro oh the unfortunate thing is i don't know what that means. No. Me either. Alex, oh no, the one person amongst the four of us who, the one person, Amogus, who plays video games, ask the question. Okay, I get that reference.

I get that reference. That hasn't passed me by on the internet. Fine. I will say, I will say that the reason that I'm sad that I'm not answering the question isn't because I have video game knowledge. Okay. So I'm looking at these and trying to think,

is there an anagram there or something like that? But Alex does not. It's not an anagram of anything else that's in there, no. I think that focusing on the specific words and trying to anagram them is going to lead you down some paths you don't want to go down. I'm going to clear them. So this isn't Disneyland.

This isn't Universal Studios. This isn't like a theme park area. Are these the Latin translations of the words in there? Because they sound vaguely Latin to me. They are not, I don't believe. Damn. You made a face that had me thinking that Tom got it. I did. I thought I'd got that.

I thought we were in some classics library or in some, like, there is a theme park. Well, there is a theme park in France called Parc Asterix, which is themed after the Asterix stories. So if they put video game parodies in there somewhere, they would absolutely do stuff like that if it was Latin. Unfortunately not. Okay, but you didn't answer my question, Taha.

It's not at a theme park. No, it's not at a theme park, but you are getting slightly warmer when you think about sort of um you know not real environments you know a theme park is sort of a place that's sort of constructed is it within another video game i don't know it's like you're in fortnite you're buying video games in it's like it's like a metaverse video game i don't know yeah it's definitely in the it's definitely in the the universe in the actual one um so you don't have to jump into the metaverse i'm curious of whether or not it's like to avoid copyright or if it's just like a whimsical like in like a whimsical reference to reality or someone's trying to hide something. I would say that it's probably to both avoid copyright

and a whimsical reference to reality, I would say. Because it could also be in a museum, right? Where it's some contemporary museum where they're trying to showcase that we live in a society and they have different references to video games in the exhibits. Wait, so it's not, it exists in the real universe, this is not like in The Sims or something? No. But you could be slightly warmer when you're thinking about The Sims. It's a constructed environment, it's a room, it's someone's, it's a recreation of someone's

bedroom or something like that. Is it a TV set? Oh! Like a movie set or a TV set? Because I couldn't get the rights to use the actual games. So it's not a TV or movie set, but this is what Tom is saying and what you guys are saying.

You're in the right ballpark. Just cook a little bit more okay maybe this is on stage in a theater and it's the the the things on display for background material at the audience it's not when i was a kid i thought i mean this is just a new clue that i've just but when i was a kid i thought this environment would be a great place to shoot a short film. But you know, what do I know? So we needed to allow me to just unlock childhood memories.

One second. Let me get into the brain of childhood. So this is, this is why I was sad not to, not to be answering it because I have, I loved wandering around with this environment when I was sad not to be answering it because I loved wandering around this environment when I was a kid. So another title you would see is Super Malm Brothers. Oh my God, I'm going to kick myself because I must know what this is. I must have heard of this place.

If we think about what other constructed environments, simulated environments, simulated environments do you encounter? Like we've thought about the theatre, we've thought about... As a kid, one of the classes that was younger than us, because I didn't get to go to this, our class was bitter we didn't get invited to this, was the weird like safety demonstration thing. Like they had a fake set of rail tracks

to teach kids don't cross railway tracks. They had a fake kitchen where they could set something on fire and do a, this is how to deal with a gas explosion. So that's the only thing from like childhood that might have like constructed environment. No, it's way more mundane than that. It's, what I'll say is it's a shop that was known for its

sense of humor you got very close and now you're sort of going further away from from it i think the closest you guys got was sort of thinking about constructed environments you know what's a what's a what's a place you know that you would have a simulated environment, like a bedroom or like a living room where you would have. Oh, my God. It's Ikea. Shut up. There you go. No.

No. No. It is Ikea. When I was a kid, I used to love going around Ikea. Mom. The mom. Alex. I have a love going around Ikea. Mom! The mom! I have a mom bed!

I know, that's what finally connected in my head. Yeah, so you have the Alex range of drawer units, the Drona storage box, the Aplaro range of furniture. I'm going to, I have all of them. I have the full set. The full set. My mind is blown right now Oh my god that took us so long

That's so embarrassing When I was a kid I used to love Going to Ikea and like Taking books off the bookshelf and just like Flicking through these like Books of just lorem ipsum And like looking at all the fun Little ways that they had changed

stuff oh i went to an ikea recently and it was straight up a real poetry book and there was a stack of them and i was very tempted to just wait wait specific ikea commissioned poetry or just a poetry book they they got from somewhere i have no idea but it was a set of it was multiple poetry books that did in fact feel like it was from another universe and if i took it with me i could have been oh dang it that's such a good that's so fun oh i'm gonna look for stuff at ikea more what an excellent excuse so it was ikea if you look at the media cases in Ikea, you will find Grand Theft Alex, Call of Drona, and Aplaro's Creed. One last thing then. At the start of the show, I asked, brown can help you think,

white can help you work, and pink is soothing. What is it? Any guesses from the- I knew this one. Melissa clearly knows this one. I can see your face. I'm confident this time. Noise. And if it's not, that's really embarrassing. Yes, it is. Yeah, brown noise, white noise, and pink noise.

What is pink noise? Pink is kind of the sound of the ocean. Okay. Thank you very much to all our players. One of you, two of you, three of you Tell us about Answer in Progress Where can people find you? I'm just throwing that out, I'm going to start with Melissa You can find all three of us on

YouTube.com forward slash answer in progress Sabrina, what do we do? Where we make videos What do we do? We haven't made a video in so long, bro Tal, what do we make videos on? We make videos asking questions that no one asked and then going on a journey to find the answer.

And sometimes that takes us to weird and wonderful places like building our own weather station or making a freakish AI or... Don't pick that. What else have we done? Find a better video. Eaton... Do the fake buildings video.

Yeah, exploring cities, finding fake buildings. And if you want to know more about... I'm cutting you off there. We got it. And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com where you can send in your own question. We are at Lateralcast pretty much everywhere.

And youtube.com slash lateralcast has video highlights. Thank you very much.Cast pretty much everywhere and youtube.com slash LateralCast has video highlights. Thank you very much. It is goodbye from Melissa. Bye! From Sabrina. Goodbye. From Taha. Hello. That's been our show. Oh, you had to. That's been our show. I've been Tom Scott. That's been Lateral.