Lateral with Tom Scott - 30: The orchestrated in-joke

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

Mark Rober, Virginia Schutte and Jabrils face questions about rigorous racing, perceptive photography, and vexatious vexillology. 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: Francesco Falcone. 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

If you heard burn one with wax, drag it through the garden, and take it for a walk, where are you most likely to be? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. As usual, I am joined by three people who have volunteered to get weird and wobbly with their thinking, so let's meet them before they fall over. We start with, from his studio in California where he is building many, many bizarre things for the internet, Mark Rober. Hello, good to be here. Welcome back to the show. This is your second time here. How are you feeling? Good. I'm feeling good. I'm embarrassed I wore the same thing again, but I hope you guys are okay with that. It's almost like we filmed these in recording blocks or something. It's amazing. Next up, still isolating before her trip off to the Antarctic, Virginia Schutte.

Hi, Tom. What are you hoping to work on out there? What are you planning while you're on the boat? Oh, my most exciting thing that I'm working up is like an editorial style fashion shoot at sea. I'm very nervous about asking for permission to do shots on the ice. I don't think we'll get it, but that's what I'm gunning for. I'm really excited about it. And worst case, you're still on the deck of a ship in the Antarctic. This is true. And finally, joining us from his mysterious artificial intelligence bunker, we have Gibralt. What's up, Tom? How you doing? Thanks for having me.

I'm doing well. I do have a question about the video we collaborated on because I got to guess which of these things were AI generated and which weren't. And I was slightly above chance,

but not much. Please tell me I wasn't the worst. You were not the worst. Okay. That's all I needed to know. But you will find out your ranking. I've got a series of clever questions

that will hopefully make our guests' brains explode with creative solutions. Not literally, but we did make them sign a waiver. So we start with this. An audience has arrived to listen to a musical performance. The entire orchestra starts to tune up and the audience laughs. Why?

I'll give you that again. An audience has arrived to listen to a musical performance, the entire orchestra starts to tune up and the audience laughs. Why? What does tune up mean? It's when they all play about the same note so that they can make sure

they're all in tune with one another. I didn't know they were all playing the same note. I kind of just thought it's like, you know, someone tunes their guitar and they go like, they do each thing. Are they all like, hey, let's all play a C? I think they generally have a note they aim for so it sounds pleasing.

And so they can hear if anyone is dissonant. So I played musical instruments for a while. There's usually a single person, usually like an oboist that stands up. They play a known note and a bunch of people come in and like a particular sequence and they play that same note. And then they go to like make sure they're all, you know, good all over. But they start with that one kind of unifying thing. OK, so the audience has arrived to listen.

They're in the seats. The orchestra starts to tune up. The audience laughs. Oh listen. They're in their seats. The orchestra starts to tune up. The audience laughs. Oh, easy, easy. So the orchestra, they play the... Right? That would be a hell of a way to tune up. No, they generally play a concert pitch, which is, I think, an A, if I remember rightly.

And, oh, our audio engineer today just waved a thumbs up from the other side of the room. So I'm going to assume I got that one right. It's concert pitch. All right. So talking about the thing then, is it, was it, are they laughing because of what they heard? Or I wonder if they're laughing because of something that they saw. Right. Or, or some combination. Right. Cause it could have been like, yeah, like Jabril said, they played like the Seinfeld like riff or something. And so it's like, oh, that's the riff from Seinfeld.

And that's just the auditory thing. Or one of the instruments blew off the toupee of the maestro. That's my question. Is this on purpose and pre-planned or was it accidental? Another good one. The tune-up is a standard orchestra tune-up. There's nothing special about it. As you say, the oboe is going to play a note.

Everyone else is going to join it. So yeah, if it's a normal tune-upup then it must be yeah what happened like did the symbol guy drop his symbol or something and it crashed uh but you're virgin you you had a good question did you did tom answer that if it was like a pre-planned thing versus an accidental thing not satisfactorily yeah okay he didn't tom it is it is pre-planned and if you were to take this out of context as we have done for this question you would just see a normal orchestra tune-up that for some reason is funny to the audience right it was pre-planned though by the orchestra they were trying to be funny it wasn't so something accidental didn't happen yeah yeah

i mean this could go so many different ways. Someone came out and tossed pancakes to them, or they're all wearing costumes. That wouldn't be a normal orchestra tune-up. Out of context for this question, it is normal tune-up, and the audience laughs for some reason. But you just look at that tune-up, nothing strange about it at all. So they're not wearing anything like crazy in their uniform.

It is about the context around what's happening. Yeah. So it's like it's a concert for the deaf or something. I don't know why you would have people playing, but it's like the fact that they're tuning up makes that funny. The fact that they have done the tune-up is a joke. Is a joke, right. And you're not quite right there, Mark, but you're definitely along the right lines.

Yeah, so why... And don't forget, the audience know what they've come to see. Yeah. Was it the normal orchestra players in their seats, or was it someone... All normal. Okay. Is it like a clapping orchestra

where it doesn't make sense to tune up? Tom said it would look like a normal tune up. So they're not tuning up claps, right? But what you said there, Jabrilz, it wouldn't make sense to tune up. Why might it not make sense? What have the audience come to see? Right.

So they've come to see a... A kazoo concert weirdly mark you were you were close with a performance for the deaf but not quite there yeah yeah yeah but it's not it's like it's like a play um for for animals are they actors you know it's like they're actors and something else so the fact they tuning up, it's like that's dumb you're tuning up because you're not going to be playing later. You don't need to be playing these instruments. So it's ridiculous that you're tuning up, right?

Why would it be ridiculous they're tuning up? Because clearly they're not going to be playing those instruments. Yes. So there is one missing piece here, pun not intended, which is what is the piece? The audience have come to see something specific. I'll tell you, in 2011, Gramophone magazine reviewed the piece by running a six

inch column of blank space. Oh, it was a silent movie? There was no sound? Yep. It's the orchestra of silence or something? Has anyone heard of a piece called Four Minutes Thirty-Three by John Cage? No. No, they haven't. So, right. I'm glad I gave that hint because no one would have got that. Can you suspect what 4 Minutes 33 by John Cage might be? It's just silence.

It's just silence. John Cage, as a composer, comes out with all sorts of things like that. And 4 Minutes 33 is instructed that everyone should stay silent and the ambient noise of the room you're in and the breathing and the sounds and the jostling that is the piece wow but they they broke it they broke the rule when they burst down laughter they were just

tuning up getting ready to play at some point the conductor walks in raises his baton and the orchestra plays the piece so for that tune-up, that got the laugh. That's funny. Okay, cool. And then the laugh becomes part of the piece. That's like the first second, maybe. So it is a reasonably famous piece amongst music nerds, I think possibly in the UK, but I'm not surprised that you all blanked on the name. So I'm going to give that to all of you collectively. Yes, the orchestra tune-up gets a laugh because the piece itself is entirely silent. Mark, we're coming to you for the first guest question. What have you got for us? Okay, here it is. To prevent hitting his head, Tom put a few UK one-pound coins in his shoes.

few UK one pound coins in his shoes. Why? I'll repeat it. To prevent hitting his head, Tom put a few UK one pound coins in his shoes. Why? I'm going to start by saying this question is not about me. That was my first question. I don't know whether the question writer has just picked a name or whether this is a specific Tom that did this, but this is not me. Yeah, Tom. I'm going to go with the Hail Mary of it. It causes a little pain to step on.

So they hunch over a little bit like and it prevents them from hitting their head on something. something i've heard that uses a method if you want to get around gate recognition cameras like there's there's artificial intelligence stuff that can recognize the way you walk so if you want to get around that you put something in your shoe you cause a bit of a limp and change in balance but i don't know why you'd use one pound coins for that is it something something to do with, I'm thinking like, okay, so here's where I'm going. We're not in a normal walking scenario here. We're doing something that's like the elevator is dropping and you're rising up. And so if you're heavier, then you won't go as high or like a trampoline setting. I'm thinking about weight here.

Is this at all? Yeah. So the part you're correct on is it's not a normal walking situation. That's true. I never said anything about walking. Okay. And it does have to do with weight.

To avoid... I said to prevent hitting his head, Tom put a few UK one pound coins in his shoes. Why? Is Tom underwater? Tom is not underwater. I'm going to try a Hail Mary here, which is that this is

about boxing and that he is cheating on the weigh-in to make himself heavier so he doesn't have to do it? Absolutely not. Oh! You had to start with the word absolutely,

didn't you? You had to drag with the word absolutely, didn't you? You had to drag it out and then come in with absolutely. I was all in with that one. That was so good. For those of you listening in the car, I was really leaning in visually. Like, oh, man. I wanted to drop that mic.

Pick that mic back up, Tom. Not even close. Damn it. But it is about weight. It's about making yourself heavier. I did not say it's about making yourself heavier necessarily. It does have to do with weight. Oh.

Okay. So what's special about a one pound coin? They are kind of small, about the size of a, maybe about the size of a US, uh, nickel, but a bit thicker. And they're also, uh, I think they have nine sides or something like that. They're biometallic. They've got silver in the middle, gold on the outside, or maybe it's the other way around. Uh, I don't know if any of those help, but now you've got some clues about what the one pound coin looks like. I liked, Tom, actually, your line of reasoning about how,

because I was assuming that Tom was alone in this scenario about not trying to get head hit by like just existing in space. Mark, is someone else hit or something? Yeah, is someone else involved in the hitting of the head? No, and that's actually almost a clue where Tom is alone, actually.

Okay. Completely alone. Are the coins an important part of this? Does it have to be those coins? Or could it be anything like small and heavy and round? Good question. And you're correct.

There's nothing specific about the coins themselves. They were just small and dense enough to get the job done. All right. And it means he's British, I guess. I don't know if that's useful as part of the clue. I don't know. You may be jumping to a conclusion there, but... Okay.

I mean, I've used UK one-pound coins and I'm not British. Why do you put small, dense stuff in your shoes? To stop hitting your head? I feel like you guys... Wait, was Tom wearing the shoes on his feet? Yes. Oh, okay. I thought I had a thing there. I thought you had a thing there.

So I feel like you guys... Tom matters here. I feel like you guys should be narrowing in on Tom and... Oh. Like, who is Tom? and most people will be familiar you guys all know you've seen this event and it can't be weirdly my brain has gone tom from tom and jerry uh i don't but it's not from tom and jerry but it's an equally famous Tom. Is Tom a human here?

Can we nail that down? Tom is a human, yes. Is it Tom Cruise? It is Tom Cruise. Okay. Oh. Is this in a movie that we're talking about here? It is in a movie.

It is. Oh, no. As an actor or as a character? No, it's actually Tom cruise as the actor in a movie um and it's it's why does he have it has to do with weight but i will say it has to do with weight distribution oh this is going to be one of the stunts it's going to be one of the stunts from the mission impossible films and it's going to be uk pound coins because they're all filmed at pinewood or one of the movie studios in the uk so it's going to be UK pound coins because they're all filmed at Pinewood or one of the movie studios in the UK.

So it's going to be some big stunt that he's done. It's the... Okay, Mark, you know last time I had that big lights on moment and you no-sold me on it. It's the stunt from Mission Impossible 1 where he's dangling in the bank vault on the wire and they need to balance him because that was shot at Pinewood and they need to make sure he levels out on the harness

and they put pound coins in his shoes tell me i'm right you could drop your mic and leave it dropped tom that is correct wow oh that was a long time coming that is correct. I have to say, I really just thought he was not good at balancing. I didn't realize that he needed help balancing there. I was just like, wow, that's a very balanced man. Totally cheated. It's no longer impressive, frankly.

The fact that he had to put coins in his shoes. Yep, that is correct. Tom Cruise was using the coins to balance himself in the famous CIA scene in the original Mission Impossible. Next question is from me. Good luck, folks. In the days before digital cameras, a photographer would write something down on a piece of paper and take a photo of it. He'd then send the film off for processing. What was the clever trick? the film off for processing. What was the clever trick? I'll say that again. In the days before digital cameras, a photographer would write down something on a piece of paper and take a photo of it. He'd then send the film off for processing. What was the clever trick? Is this a specific

thing like a marriage proposal or is this like a general trend among photographers? Several photographers would use this trick. I'm not saying every photographer would do it, but it'd be the sort of thing where someone would go, Hey, you know, uh, this is a good idea. You should try doing this. I took a photography in high school. And so we had to develop our own film and, um, I could see it being like, is it like a message to the developer where it's like, you don't know if there's 24 pictures or 36. So it's like, take a picture and you're trying to communicate something to the person who's developing the pictures. Yeah, you're homing in on the right area very quickly there.

Okay. Are you coming in with a suggestion there, Jabrilz, or are you just kind of giggling in the background? No, it's just a thanks to Mark Roper. So that's the question then. What would be beneficial? Is it specifically the person developing the film that they're trying to communicate with? Yeah, personal company, yeah.

Is it as simple as date and time or, and location, or are we talking something different here? It is something simple. It's not quite there. You're getting, you're getting closer. So we are making the assumption that when he writes down, it has some sort of benefit to the, to the developer. To both of them, really. Or both. It has to be both, right? Is it like develop this in color, develop, really. Or both. It has to be both, right? Is it like, develop this in color, develop it in black and white? It's instruction, certainly, but you wouldn't see that until the film was developed, really. Like, the film comes into the developer, they're just going to put it in the magic machine that does it, I assume.

No, you haven't. No, Tom. No, Tom. That's not how this works. You have the negative, right? And so you see the light and so you need to know, well, I don't remember everything. All of the things we developed was black and white, but you have the negative in the dark room. Because growing up, you just took a load of photos on a camera. You took the roll of film, you put it in an envelope, you sent it off to the developing company. And at some point later, you got prints back. Now I assume professionals work a little bit differently there, but it's not like, I'm not sure someone would be manually developing

every single frame individually. Is it fair to assume that this is not the only image that they send to be developed? Like there's other images in the series? Absolutely. Okay. You're all steadily working through the hints that I've got on my sheet in front of you like you've got most of them already is it like to keep them separate from the next batch it's a good point

that it could be a company so it's like you don't want yours getting confused with the next person's stuff so you say like last print and take a picture of that so they know, okay, this isn't, yeah. You're getting there. It is the last thing in the roll of film. When they've got one shot left, write it down, take a picture, send that off. Last, so then...

Does it have to do with the quality of the last print? Like maybe the last print sometimes is a half print because in your camera, so it's a wasted roll anyways so you don't want to it's not that right it's as good as picture as any of the rest of them yeah is it does that have something to do with like maybe shipping and packaging special instructions for that or you're getting very close oh is it to make sure your film doesn't

get lost so it's just like an ID tag. So if they develop it and then they're like, who do I send this to? It's like, oh, this is John Smith's in Virginia. Absolutely right. It's the name and address. Genius. Spot on.

In case the film gets separated from the order form you send in with it. Genius. Absolute worst case. The prints come out like, oh no, we've lost the form. What do we do? It's fine. They've put their address on the last frame. Because at that point, the only copy of that film has headed off to the developer.

And if they lose it, there is no way of getting that back. Very cool. Very cool, man. How many disasters had to happen for this to become standard practice? Oh gosh. It only has to happen once. And then you're going to be given that tip to every single one of your friends.

Yeah, Virginia, you got the last bit there. The clever trick is taking a photo of your name and address as the last picture. So if all else fails, the developer will still send your prints back to you. Gibraltar, the next question is from you. Take it away. Okay, so an advert consists of a very large word search.

The letters are all in blue, except for one answer. The name James, which is orange. What is the advert's message? I'll read it again. An advert consists of a very large word search. The letters are all in blue, except for one answer, the name James, which is orange. What is the advert's message? I started writing this down and it didn't help. It's either, I bet it's either like a pun like orbs james among blue letter it's like that's a

pun of a thing or maybe it's like it doesn't have to do with colorblind at all like it's like a it's like an eye doctor who does colorblind stuff i was thinking colorblind test but i don't think blue orange is a common type of colorblindness. It doesn't have anything to do with colorblindness, but you're on the right track with visibility. Word search makes me think that like, if you're targeting the search idea, like find who you're looking for in a, so like a person finder,

or I don't know if it's a dating service, but it could be like a look up your old auntie it could be it could be a recruitment thing like you need the one person that they look for but I can't I can't think of any companies that have that blue and orange color scheme that fit in any of those groups yeah I bet if we I bet if we nailed down the company it true is it true to bros if we knew the company and what they do, this would be way easier? Like, that's a big part of it? Like it's a

dating app or it's a recruitment firm like Tom and Virginia said. It's not a company. It's more of an organization. I see. James. James and a bunch of blue letters. This is a good one. Or is it a privacy scrubbing thing? So don't be found?

No, but that's still a company. Are there also the letters giant peach in there somewhere? And it's for literacy, really? I'm going to give you the first clue, okay? This advert is not selling anything. Is this like a missing children's poster or something like that? That they are fine?

Like you found James among all the other like that, that they are fine. Like you've, you've found James among all the other people's names that are in there. You're, you're, you're in the right direction. Is it for like child abuse? Like I've seen those ones that like from a certain angle you hear, see it.

And it's like, for kids can see it, but adults can't or something. I mean, I feel like if we've got a question like that, our question editors are slightly off the mark in the tone, but it's about trying to track down, to track down someone that's missing or that is lost. But it's like clever. It seems like it's like a clever, it's not a pun, right? Like, is it the answer? Like if you, is it a pun? I would not classify this as a pun.

I'm going to read the question for you one more time. So an advert consists of a very large word search. The letters are all in blue, except for one answer, the name James, which is in orange. What is the advert's message? Does James matter? Is James a very specific person? And if we do that, that would help. And then like Tom Cruise. So James is an example. So in the examples context, James is very important.

I am no closer to anything that matters. But is it an average that's on the side of a highway or is it a bus stop or it doesn't matter or newspaper it doesn't matter oh in my head this was a newspaper because it was a word search in my head it was like a billboard on the side of the freeway this this advert is to raise public awareness of something oh both of the colors mentioned are relevant blue and orange and if you can figure out if you can figure out the importance of the blue, the orange should make a lot of sense to you. This doesn't have to do with like a Russian and his knotted car.

Oh, it's the... It's the ocean. It's finding people at sea. It's lifeboats or... Oh. It's someone wearing a life preserver in the ocean orange james in the middle of blue ocean of words and other things so it must be for the i'm guessing uk lifeboat organization you are correct tom uh you're not correct on the actual organization it is the

national sea rescue institute of south africa but But the advert message is you are more visible, assuming in the ocean, wearing a life jacket. That is very clever. So the advert reads there are 20 names in this word search, but you only saw one. Wear a life jacket. Got it. That is clever. And so the blue letters surrounding James, it represents the sea.

And then James in orange represents someone wearing a life jacket. Next one's from me. Here we go. In the 1966 Le Mans 24-hour race, the car that crossed the finish line second was judged to be the winner, even though the driver ahead of them

wasn't disqualified or sanctioned. Why? One more time. In the 1966 Le Mans 24-hour race, the car that crossed the finishing line second was judged to be the winner, even though the driver ahead of them wasn't disqualified or sanctioned. Why? That's interesting. It had no driver. The driver fell out. I feel like that would be a disqualification. Yeah, agreed. I don't know if it would be, but I feel like if your Formula One car

has an ejector seat and you use it, that's probably not going to get you the win. Was the car ahead officially part of the race or was it like a movie-making car? They were part of the race, yeah. Was it, is it like two laps and therefore it was like, hey, that car was just really, really slow and finished right in front of them. therefore it was like hey that car was just really really

slow and finished right in front of them but it was like hey that was lap one not quite because the because that that happened like people get lapped in in formula one all the time and when i say cross the line like i mean cross the finish Jabril, are you Googling 1966? I can hear typing. Someone's clearly Googling the 24-hour race here. It was a very suspicious time to hear a keyboard stroke. Did the first car take themselves out?

So even if they were disqualified, did they voluntarily withdraw? Weirdly, in the story, there was a bit of sportsmanship going on. But no, they did legitimately cross the finish line first but virginia's point is that's a really good point in its sportsmanship so that the person conceded that like hey it was a voluntary give like giving it to the other person is what she was saying. And that's right. I'm just sticking with the charity storylines just throughout our podcast here.

Wait, you said this is like a vehicle race or a bike race? Yeah, so the Le Mans 24-hour is a vehicle race. Okay, okay. Because I know there's the classic clip of the Tour de France of the bicyclist that fell on a turn or took the wrong turn or something. The cyclist that was behind him allowed him to come first place, but that was on bicycles.

I don't know if there's something similar. That could work on cars too. Was it something like that? It's a good point, Jabril. Someone totally deserved it, but they made some blunder at the end and the other person was trying to be cool and be like, it wasn't something like that, it's a good point, Jabril. It's like, someone totally deserved it, but they made some blunder at the end and the other person

was trying to be cool and be like, it wasn't something like that. No, because in that case, they still crossed the finish line first. They just weren't judged to be the winner.

Have a think about the name of the race, Le Mans 24 Hour. If they did it in, in 23, it's supposed to take 24 hours. They did like 23 hours and 58 minutes. No, it is an exactly 24 hour race.

Oh, so I think I know it. So you are supposed to take exactly 24 hours to cross the finish line. And the person who is closest to the 24-hour mark exactly wins the race. And so the first person was too fast. Oh, nearly. That's not right, Tom. Your question is bad. It certainly has non-standard rules.

Formula One is about as fast as possible. Le Mans 24 hours is technically about that, but it's kind of scored differently. Like who can finish also with the other person who's like missing a wheel or they had they incurred some damage

that then points wise they weren't the winner because they were deficient. How would you score a race that must last 24 hours? What could you put up on the leaderboard? Driving hours.

You're very close, Jibrils. Distance. Which would be measured how? In, in freedom units. Feet. Not meters,

that's for sure. I don't feel like that was what you were getting at. You would measure, yeah, you'd measure distance. Tires. The amount of tires you go through. Mark your closer.

Weird way to measure distance. Yeah, like markers, mile markers. Like maybe there's... How would you measure distance? You'd measure it in a standard unit. Laps. It's a number of laps. Upon the scoreboard is the number of laps.

So then the person behind them had more laps when they crossed the finish line. Which is what I first said. Tom. Tom. They both had the same number of laps. Okay. They both have the same number of laps. Okay. They both have the same number of laps.

At the end of the race, the scoreboard is the same for both of them. So we're thinking about how the rules could work here and who gets declared the winner. Man, this feels like I should know this. If I know what the Le Mans race is, I guess I'm not that familiar with it. Would this be super obvious?

Are people screaming in their car who know how this race works? If they've seen the movie Ford versus Ferrari, then yes, but I don't think many people have seen the movie Ford versus Ferrari. My buddy really wanted me to see that and I haven't seen it yet. Same laps, but the person behind takes the kick.

And you're right, it's judged on distance. So in the event of the same number of laps, what's the tiebreaker? So then they default to another variable, which is distance, to determine who wins. And there's one key thing you're missing there. Are they on the same course, but one of them took a longer route by going on the outside

of the track or something? You're so close. There's one thing in the rules. You are so, so close. That means that one of them just took a little bit more distance than the other. So by the rules, if you've got the same number of laps

on the board at the end, that's the person who gets the victory. Where do you start in the pole position? Got it. So if you started back, then it's technically a little bit longer. Right? And that was the tiebreaker rule

that LeM Mans used. Yes. I see. I see. Oh, that was so unsatisfying, Tom. And the sportsmanship part is literally, if you've seen the movie,

the guy in front slows down. So it is a close race so they can all try and get, I think it's Ford that won that race, I think. They try and get a one, two, three finish by kind of everyone working together. But yes, the winner was the second across the line

because they had the same number of laps, but he'd started further back. Virginia, last big question of the show. Take it away. All right. As a protest against their parents, a young adult put up a mural of over 300 flags greenland albania and hong kong were in the top section while somalia kosovo and greece were near the bottom what were they banned

from doing i'm gonna read it a second time and i'm just to say that I'm so glad I'm asking this question. I know. Almost. As a protest against their parents, a young adult put up a mural of over 300 flags. Greenland, Albania, and Hong Kong were in the top section,

while Somalia, Kosovo, and Greece were near the bottom. What was this young adult banned from doing? So I need flag knowledge here. Yes. I have a guess. I have a guess. Okay. Are the colors, are the first three you mentioned more red

and the last one you mentioned more purple? Yes, they are. Because Greenland, Albania and Hong Kong, those are the ones I know and they're all, Greenland is red and white. Albania is red with an eagle on it and Hong Kong, those are the ones I know. And they're all, Greenland is red and white. Albania is red with an eagle on it. Hong Kong, I can't remember the details. I know it's red.

And then Greece is blue and white. The other two, I don't know. I feel like Kosovo is probably blue or purple. So my guess is like, it's a pride flag and they're using the nations and it's like red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. Oh. You get it, you took the cake. Right there.

That's exactly right. And thanks to Mark Rober. So their parents did not allow them to put up a gay pride flag in their room and protest. They were. This is my own addition here, extremely clever and arranged the flags in six approximate bands of colors that from the other side of the room, it resembled a huge rainbow flag altogether.

The Reddit user sharing that eventually left home and took all the flags with them. It's a beautiful picture. Nice. Which means that our final order of business is the question I asked right at the start. If you heard burn one with wax, drag it through the garden and take it for a walk, where are you most likely to be? Anyone want to chime in from the panel before I give the answer for this one? I don't know. What are the other two said? Burn one with wax,

drag to the garden and what? Take it for a walk. It's like a pest control thing where you have a pest and you're controlling it. Is it all in relation to the same thing? Yep, absolutely. And after like the 1970s, you've only really heard this used ironically. It's like at the horse track or something. It's like something super obscure, yeah. Weirdly, if you know your Spongebob Squarepants references, you may be able to get this one,

although the words are a bit different. And what I like is that Mark and Virginia just went, ha, I don't know that, and Jabril just kind of cocked his head and went, I should know this. Jellyfish. You would be in a diner. This is American diner slang from the 1920s to 1970s which

so orders could be yelled over a busy room uh burn one will be put a burger on the grill with wax is with cheese drag it through the garden means add salad and take it for a walk is take away or to go that is diner slang from the 1920s to 70s. Very well done if you got that at home, because I wouldn't. I don't think any of the panel did either. Speaking of the panel, we start with Virginia. Tell us what you're up to. I am headed to Antarctica. I will be on a deep sea research vessel for 60 days. You can find me at BGW Shooty. That's F-C-H-U-T-T-E. Everywhere there's social media and I'll tell you about what we're doing. Mark. I'm on YouTube, just making crazy engineering builds to get the young folks stoked about science and education.

Andrew Brills. I am over at youtube.com slash atchbrills. Just hanging out, making some coding projects and having fun. Come join me. It's nice and cozy over here. And if you want to know more about this show or send in a question idea yourself, you can do that at lateralcast.com. You can find us at Lateral Cast pretty much everywhere.

And there are video highlights at youtube.com slash lateralcast. With that, it is goodbye from... Do you rules? See ya! Love ya. From Virginia Schutte. Yay, bye! And from Mark Rober.

Bye! I've been Tom Scott, and this has been Lateral.