Lateral with Tom Scott - 50: Undercover sunburn

Episode Date: September 22, 2023

Caroline Roper, Ella Hubber and Tom Lum from 'Let's Learn Everything!' face questions about story studies, Disney descriptions and pictorial publicity. 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: The Podcast Studios, Dublin. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Ian Richens, Sean Anderson, Bob. 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

Which 1989 live-action Disney film has a grammatical mistake in its title? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. Welcome to the show. The script here says that I need to read this in a pirate accent, and for historical reasons, I refuse to do that. So, ahoy me hearties and welcome aboard the good ship Lateral. You'll be setting sail on a journey that'll shiver your timbers and your

brain cells. Joining us for this episode we have back again the crew from Let's Learn Everything, the podcast. And it is always a little bit of chaos trying to introduce a podcast with three hosts. Someone's got to take priority and it's going to be, you know what, we're going to go in alphabetical order. Caroline Roper, how are you doing? I'm doing so good, thank you very much. If not a little bit sweaty with it being so warm here today in the UK. Great advice. Yeah, you're so welcome everyone.

My sweat is all from nerves. I'm ready to go. I've been working out mentally. Because he knows he's going to lose. Which brings us on to Ella Hubber. I'm going to ask, what have you learned since the last time we were on the show? On our podcast, Let's Learn Everything, we learn everything. So I have, in fact in fact learned everything i would say like i just like everything mission accomplished yeah i'm gonna make this show very difficult for everyone because i know all the answers wow this is some real fighting talk from you today

and rounding out the trio tom lum how are you doing shiver me brain cells. I knew that was coming. I knew it. Someone was going to. I don't know. I guess it's good that now Tom Scott knows who I am as a person to expect that. I guess by episode three, there's nothing to hide. Is that a self-burn? I don't know. Oh, yeah. The last time we were here...

Was it the last time we were here? The last time we spoke, Tom was it the last time we were here? The last time we spoke, Tom, you said something about our Tom, which I've kept with me, which was the sentence, I'm not rewarding that, which has just become a part of my vocabulary. You know when a therapist tells you

how to communicate something with your problematic family member? That's what you did for me. We do that every episode now, whenever Tom makes a joke like that. So, yeah. So, thank you. Good to be back.

If we're all ready, avast, let us raise the jolly roger of curiosity as we embark on a quest that'll make your noggin dance a jig. I will not forgive the scriptwriter for that. We start off with question one. Question one was sent in by Bob, thank you very much. The phrase dragging your feet is usually associated with being unwilling to do something.

However, tourists in Florida and California are often advised to drag their feet, and they're usually happy to comply. Why? I'll give you that one more time. The phrase dragging your feet is usually associated with being unwilling to do something. However, tourists in Florida and California are often advised to drag their feet, and they are usually happy to comply. Why, me hearties? Sandworms. This is like the worm dance that you have to do uh so that they don't sense attracting

sandworm oh oh i see no you want you want to keep them away uh-huh yeah that one is it on the beach because it feels like it should be on the beach it's something about you know like california florida right yeah is it something to do with electricity going through the ground because i know no like no hear me out hear me out you're staticking up the ground no no no no because like if like an electric like a live wire hits the ground you're fine if you stand still because both of your feet make a circuit the electricity travels through your body but as soon as you break that circuit that's when you become like at risk, basically. So what you're saying is Florida and California

are just absolutely covered in live wires everywhere, sticking out of the ground. Yeah, all the time, everywhere. I mean, I'd believe it for Florida, but how does that work? I didn't know that. And what if two parts of the ground are at different potentials, then if you take too big a step back...

I believe you're supposed to like scurry like this, like your feet side by side. I was going to say that doesn't make sense. Then I remembered there's a place I've been to in Chicago where there is the fish barrier, the electric fish barrier. They have to let shipping through a canal in the Great Lakes, but they can't let invasive carp through. So this whole section of the waterway is electrified.

I'm sorry. What? What? So I got like a safety booklet on arrival, and one of the things was, don't touch two metal things at the same time. You can touch one metal thing and you can touch the other metal thing, but there might be, there shouldn't be, but in the event that there's been a bit of leakage of voltage from somewhere,

then you could technically create a difference in potential by touching two things. So I was going to say, oh, that doesn't make sense. But yeah, I guess if you've got two legs and the electricity might decide to go that way. However, nothing to do with electricity. You are right about the beaches, though. Beaches. OK. Well, I was going to say, because California is the live wire state, right? I think.

As the only American here, I can confirm that. And I believe you. Beaches. What is sandworms beaches so yeah something okay so is there something i'm trying to think of like florida has a big seaweed problem from the sargasso sea and so maybe it's some kind of clear dragging your feet through the seaweed clearing it up you're kicking it off uh the most inefficient beach clean ever is what you're

suggesting basically i love it yeah basically but that doesn't happen in california the thing is tom and i don't know how many people out there got the Dune reference, but you're not that far away with sandworms. Oh, then it's the Arrakis people. Is it not? Or is it some other Dune reference character? Well, this run of shows, my lack of classic literature knowledge and like classic sci-fi and fantasy literature knowledge keeps getting showed up. Because I screwed up a Lord of the rings reference the other uh the other show and now i've got i gotta admit i couldn't get into dune either unforgivable i don't like dune

there's too much there's too much law i'm gonna get attacked by the nerds now i'm a nerd i promise okay so okay we've got sand no we don't have sandworms we have is it like something some kind of like shell creature that needs to breathe oh you see i was thinking is stepping like drawing too much attention to you in some way and is shuffling making you like less obvious to an animal of some sort maybe i'm trying to think what's in common between california and florida i want to say like i mean when you said florida i assumed like gators of some kind like maybe would be not but if it's a beach animal i'm trying to think yeah seashell could it be a jellyfish those are the live wires of the sea. No, I think it's something that,

surely something that's like burrowing. Yeah. Ooh. Oh. I mean, at this point, it is kind of like name sea creatures because you've got essentially every element of this. This is something that tourists will want to avoid

and the vibrations of you dragging your feet through the ground are more likely to scare it off. I have no idea what animal it could be. A crab? I like how both of you went to crab at the same time there. I'm not sure why. That's classic carcinization, baby. Everything goes to crabs. We're not explaining that joke. Y'all can Google that one. If you can read Dune, you can read about that joke.

Sooner or later, everything evolves into a crab. I would assume it's... I was thinking because of Pinchy. They be pinching, you know? But I guess not. Prairie dogs? Do we know? Can we guess the gene?

Is it like, is it a mammal? Is it a sea creature? Please let us out of our misery. Stingrays. Stingrays. Huh. They bury themselves in the sand just a few feet from the shore. And if you step on them, they'll sting you.

No. But if you drag your feet along, they'll probably get scared and move away. Interesting. So, yeah, I thought I would cut short the game of guess every sea creature there. But, yes, you pretty much got it. Honestly, Tom, you got it with sandworms right at the start. So put down... Do a little dance for the audio listeners.

Do a little dance. So put down a little dance for the audio listeners. Do a little dance. Yes, tourists in California and Florida are advised to do the stingray shuffle so they don't get stung. Each of the Let's Learn Everything crew have brought a question along. So we're going to start with Ella. What have you got? This question has been sent in by an anonymous listener. In 1996, the painting Eileen by R. Angelo Leth was stolen from the MoBA Gallery in Boston.

Why did the museum offer $6.50 in reward money? And once more. In 1996, the painting Eileen by R. Angelo Leth was stolen from the MoBA Gallery in Boston. Why did the museum offer $6.50 in reward money? Really didn't like that painting. Not a good painting. I'm thinking, like, was it stolen without any provenance and therefore was useless or worth interesting what's what does providence mean so like without any proof of the background of the paintings like where it came from where it had been bought from before um to prove that it was a valuable painting that is a

good idea but no is this like one of those things where like painting is very loose and it's like a wet floor sign or something that was stolen that was painted? It is a painting. I mean I know there is art that is less a physical object and more a set of instructions for the gallery. Oh. Like the exact object doesn't matter, they just have to go out and buy this thing and this thing and this thing and set it up and now you have that painting that that artwork on display yeah there's that wonderful art installation uh an untitled portrait of ross in la where it's a just like a pile of

wrapped candy that uh like is like the weight of the artist's lover who was like deteriorating of hiv aids and so like when people take it and they're encouraged to it like represents the deterioration but and so like it's just like a pile of candy and so that's a that's a great insight maybe it is something like but painting is interesting right it's not like I've seen the artwork and it's it's you walk in it's a pile of candy and then you read the thing next to it and it's suddenly heartbreaking. It's, it's a lot. It's really amazing.

Wow. Jesus. Keep it light, guys. Yeah, sorry. Well, it's a painting, so as nice as the idea is. Yeah, I feel like. painting so as nice as yeah i feel like is but it could be maybe it's like one where someone does like thousands and thousands of paintings as like part of the thing or like they draw it themselves like in the moment it's like a sketch artist person does it no it's just one is the dollar

amount specific like very specific like is there a code in the no there is nothing special about the value huh but it is important that it is a low figure was the painting not valued at anything was this like the price of the frame it was in oh you know i don't know if it was the price of the frame in but the value of the painting is legitimately low it's just a bad painting. It's just really, really bad. Like the museum is required to put it on display because of some money from a benefactor. Someone's nephew. Yeah.

I remember reading about that. There's at least one art gallery where they have a whole room dedicated to someone's art. I can't remember the name and it would probably be slanderous to say someone's actual name here. But the reason that room is there is because they or their family or their

I think the painter might be deceased now and it's their child or something gave an enormous amount of money and basically propped up the entire gallery financially on the requirement that there is one room dedicated to this person's art. Well, Tom, you're kind of almost there.

If you disregard the end bit, just that start bit. It's just really bad. It's just really bad art. It is really... Wait, wait, no. Hold on. M-O-B-A. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's the museum of bad art in boston i've heard of that oh my god you could have actually worded it out tom at the start you

weren't wrong you just you followed the wrong clues it was a red herring you got it you got it i remember reading that that was that was on my list of potential places to film once i i can't why why i didn't go for it but yeah museum of bad art somewhere in boston yes that's it the museum of bad art that's amazing wow like everything in the gallery it was a terrible piece of art actually eileen had already been fished out of the trash and slashed with a knife even before the museum had acquired it. For it to have been found in the trash and slashed, that's amazing. Again, that's great providence.

And the painting was actually returned in 2006, so someone didn't want it. so someone didn't want it. So yeah, the painting Eileen, like everything else in the gallery, was just a terrible piece of art. Next question then, folks. Most mornings, Cathy puts on a thin layer of SPF 30 sunscreen before starting her job. She does this even though she knows

she will not be outdoors for the vast majority starting her job. She does this even though she knows she will not be outdoors for the vast majority of her shift. Why? One more time. Most mornings, Cathy puts on a thin layer of SPF 30 sunscreen before starting her job. She does this even though she knows she will not be outdoors for the vast majority of her shift.

Why? Now, I want to start by saying that I wear SPF 30 every single day, even though I live in the UK and it's often cloudy. Me too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you should, yes, and I should as well. Because I will be young forever. Absolutely. Is that the answer, Tom?

Is Cathy is a regular human being who should be doing this like everyone else? Yeah, that's the answer. a regular human being who should be doing this like everyone else i think if you were if you knew you were going to be absolutely indoors for all your shift all day you may not choose to do that you should but you may not choose to do that so there's some uv in her workplace yeah my immediate thought is does she like work in an illegal plant farm of some sort you know it's fine you can say marijuana we're okay particularly for the uh illegal plant farm particularly for the americans in this world we definitely can well depends where you are i guess does she grow weed for anything uh She does not, in this case.

Oh! I'm also not sure if that's the same UV. Yeah, I wonder. Does she grow a legal plant farm of some sort? Go the opposite way. Does she do like some weird indoor farming? Weird is not the right word, you know what I mean. No, not in this case. So we just did a misc recently about, Caroline did, about the radium girls. And so we learned a lot about radioactivity.

And so my wonder is if it's something, I don't know if that's the same thing necessarily, though. But I don't know if there could be something. I'm picturing like a science, like a plant of some kind like a it's a laboratory right and some experiment maybe yeah i feel like i don't think that radium i don't think that spf can stop any level of radioactivity so let's not like even 30 it might help against alpha radiation, possibly, because that doesn't penetrate the skin at all. Like that can be stopped by a sheet of paper. So I guess in theory, a sunblock might be able to protect you against alpha.

But in this case, it's UV rays. Yes, okay. So when I was, I used to work in a lab, and we had UV lights to clean, like to sterilise things, like the hoods we used to work in. Is it that kind of thing? Is it like a big, to sterilise something? Is it UV from the sun or is it UV from somewhere else?

It is UV from the sun, yes. And surprisingly, the windows in our workplace don't provide protection from this. Not completely. I was gonna say it's like a rave and they just have like really bright UV lights and it's dangerous. It's indoors. So it is sunlight from indoors.

It's a mirror factory. Could have been. Having recently visited a mirror factory, that's not UV light. That's going to be argon and plasma and atomized metals, but I don't think that's UV light. Yeah, God, Tom, you're so dumb. Right, yeah, which I was...

Oh, you're right. And I did know that. And I knew all that, yeah. Yeah, obviously. They do use it for like sterilization, which I was, oh, you're right. And I did know that. And I knew all that, yeah. Yeah, obviously. They do use it for like sterilization, things like that. I'm being a bit of a dick there who just wanted a name drop that I'd recently been to a mirror factory, but. I was going to say, that's the only reason why that answer is stupid.

Not for any other. Um, gosh. Is it that she just like works in a normal office but her chair is just like in a really sunny spot her chair is in a very sunny spot oh okay then it's her job about being she has to be in that spot oh yeah does she test sun creams that would, I really hope it's not that because we should have guessed that from the start. Bear in mind, and this is very carefully phrased, she will not be outdoors. Is she like an indoor lifeguard or something like that? Sometimes someone gives an alternate answer to the question that in theory could work.

There are like some water parks, things out there which deliberately have UV transparent glass so people could get a tan. Wow. I think there are probably more people doing this job than there would be lifeguards in places like that. In fact, I'm certain there are more people doing this job. Oh, wow. I think the grand total of like worldwide lifeguards in places that have deliberately had UV transparent glass is probably less than 100.

Certainly less than 1,000. I can tell you there's more than 1,000 people doing... Does she have to look out at something is what I'm wondering. Oh, yeah. It's on a boat, maybe? Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. Is she an air traffic controller? Oh, you know sometimes.

Just aim for it. Aim for it. It's swerved at the last second. Pilot. Pilot. There we go. Oh, of course. Yes!

Oh! They don't have even windows. Surely they should put some kind of protective filter on these windows. Well, so they can get a tan. You would think that there would be full UV protection for pilots through that glass. And there is some, but the UV at that altitude, so high up, is so strong that without tinting the windows so much that they couldn't see at night, there's only so much they can do. That is strange. That's so interesting.

There's only so much they can do. That is strange. That's so interesting. So there was a study in 2014 that said pilots and flight attendants are twice as likely to get melanoma as most people. Oh, man. Wow. Also truck drivers, but only on the side of their face that faces the window. Yeah.

I've seen, this is one of the reasons why I started wearing sun cream every day, because I've seen that viral a of a woman truck driver leaning out of a cut of a van and having just one side of her face i just i'm like freaked freaked me out it freaked me out it's it's just i wear contact lenses and so i don't know if anyone has ever got sunblock behind a contact lens, but it is the worst. Stop, it's the worst. Any time I get smudges on my glasses from sunscreen, I'm not going to take that for granted. I'm like, that's fine, I can wash that off.

I can see far, yeah. Thanks, Ella. Have you tried having good genes, Tom? Have you tried not spending your childhood indoors, often staring at a screen? Tom, the next question is yours. Over to you. All right.

This question was sent in by Sean Anderson, and I'm so glad you did because I love this one. A Turkish newspaper advertisement featured a flesh-colored background behind a slightly lighter design that was 30 squares in height and width. Why did interested parties have to apply a little bit of effort? And I'll read that again. A Turkish newspaper advertisement featured a flesh-colored background behind a slightly lighter design that was 30 squares in height and width.

Why did interested parties have to apply a little effort? 30 squares? 30 squares of what? My brain goes to like a crossword. I feel like that because it's like a newspaper advert. And I think crosswords are generally about that size. And like, I hear like squares, effort squares effort newspaper my brain goes crossword why it would be flesh colored i don't know and the idea of a flesh crossword sounds like

something out of a hellraiser movie yeah is it is the color important to this like the i mean obviously you said flesh colored why would it not be why would you need to specify that otherwise it was if not a crossword as some kind of other puzzle when we say flesh do we mean like the like the insidey flesh or the or the skin flesh skin standard standard caucasian white guy flesh got it okay oh fantastic okay perfect well i will say that the you know it doesn't Caucasian white guy flesh. Got it. Okay. Oh, fantastic. Okay. Perfect. Lovely. Well, I will say that the, you know, it doesn't have to be any specific tone of flesh, just flesh, coloured, skin coloured. Is it a makeup advert?

That's interesting. Yeah. It's, you're on. Like you can like, you come to the sample that you can apply to the. Or just for sunblock, you know? Great. If specifically for pilots.

They just drew a crossword on someone's back with sunblock, wiped it off afterwards, took a photo. I'm just thinking if you, you know, in magazines and stuff, you can get like samples of things. So you could, it could be like an application. Are you saying

they had to apply a bit of pressure or... So it could be like an application. Are you saying they had to apply a bit of pressure? So it's color. Had to apply a bit of effort. Color changing. Like heat. You guys are really circling around like the, you're thinking in the right headspace of like a fun interactive mechanic, but you're thinking of the wrong profession.

Wrong profession. The wrong profession. Are they checking their skin for something? No. Okay, so it's fun. Interactive stuff that you can put in an advert. So scratch and sniff. Oh. Some kind of maths puzzle you have to,

like a pie cross that works out, or pick cross. I actually don't know. I've never heard that said out loud. But like a design you have to work out and doodle. Wait, there was a thing MI5 did a while back, like the British spy agency, where they put out a job application that was essentially a series of puzzles you had to solve because they were looking for analysts and code breakers and things like that. I'm not sure if it was a job application, but it was a

publicity stunt. They were like, this is the kind of person we want. So is it like the Turkish intelligence agency asking people to solve this to find the address to apply to so you're you're very close tom again you're it's it is a sort of job test but again the wrong profession you guys haven't mentioned it yet which is very interesting but you're you're so close that it is sort of like a a kind of a puzzle like that um i'll also say it's not a crossword but it is squares it is um again 30 squares in height and width the biggest and worst sudoku in the world it's a test of skill for a profession i can only i'm so focused on flesh i cannot stop thinking about it yeah yeah flesh is important what surgeons they're looking for surgeons

someone with a steady hand you're you're closer you're closer skit like dermatologists? Tattoo artists. Oh, a tattoo. Now, Tom, but the question is now, what were they, what are these squares? It's like a drawing square that you make some art in, I assume. It's more functional than that. I cannot figure out what these squares do for a tattoo artist. What kind of skill would you, these squares do for a tattoo artist. What kind of skill would you... They had to apply a little effort. So they had to... They had to fill in these squares, but it's not a puzzle.

Once it's completed, it does something in a way. A 30x30. Is it a QR code? It sure is. Oh my goodness. Because the lighter design doesn't scan. You have to fill in all the darker parts. If you have two similar...

It's not because it... I'm assuming it was flesh because it was a tattoo artist thing. And you need to have the patience to be able to fill in that grid well enough that your phone will scan it. And where do you think the QR code will lead you? To the tattoo shop. Job application for the tattoo shop. Yep. The 2012 advert read,

new tattoo artists wanted to apply, fill in the QR code carefully. And then, yeah, using a black pen, you could fill it in. But yeah, and it's it's it's very interesting because knowing about qr codes they're actually like known to be extremely resilient so it's it's not actually like an amazing test because you could you can literally like smudge a portion of our qr code or like if you don't even have to do like extremely straight lines they're like made to be extremely there's like tons of cool websites that like show all the ways you can like mess with them and still read them but yeah that's i was thinking

you they're hoping people will be very precise because that's what you want from a tattoo artist but it sounds like i could have just done any old rubbish to that and then then been like, I can have this job. All I did was open it in Photoshop, adjust the contrast, scan that, worked fine. So the tattoo artist had to colour in the QR code to apply for a job.

Next question's for me, folks. Good luck. A random group of people read a short story individually. They generally like the Good luck. A random group of people read a short story individually. They generally like the story. A second random group of people read these paragraphs too, using the same paper and typeface. They like the story significantly more.

Why? I'll say that again. A random group of people read a short story individually. They generally like the story. A second random group of people read these paragraphs too, using the same paper and typeface. They like the story significantly more. Why? Okay, so both groups are random, so it's not about their, you know, gender or age or anything like that. Is there, like, a reasonable, like, is there much of a time difference between these two groups reading these paragraphs?

No, this was in the same study. It wasn't like a joke that needed some more time to age? This was in the same study. I will say it's a 2011 study in psychology and the replication crisis has happened since then. So treat this with a little bit of a pinch of salt. Not meaning to slander anyone there, just saying I don't know if this has ever been repeated by other researchers.

Okay. Well, if someone wants to learn more about the replication crisis, they can listen to an episode of the podcast. Great. I find it interesting that you said same paper and typeface like specifying that specifically was interesting I don't know if that's a red herring

because if someone had read it in comic sans they would have hated it so obviously okay was the language the same yeah a second random group of people read these paragraphs too. Is this a placebo of some kind? Yeah, did they do something beforehand?

Yeah. That like primed them for the story experience? What if they said beforehand in one group, it's like, this is going to be a really funny story, and then the other one they didn't. Something like that. You're getting very close there. It's not quite a priming effect. And I know from experience that priming effects are vastly overstated.

But you're along the right lines. They paid them. They paid one of the groups. I wouldn't be surprised by that, yeah. Uh-huh, uh-huh. There is a bit of a change to what was in front of them. And I'm being careful there at this point. It's a very carefully worded question.

Are the paragraphs in the same order each time? They are. And there was an uptone at the end of that sentence. So when you say in the same order, do you mean maybe the same order but reversed or something like that? There is a loophole in there somewhere. The second group did read the same paragraphs as the first.

They were in the same order, but there is very deliberately a loophole there. And you were sort of dancing around it earlier. Was it different punctuation? Was it like all one line versus being broken up into chunks? You know when you were like, they were just told this was going to be a funny joke? You were kind of along the right lines there, Tom.

Uh-huh. They did read something that the first group didn't. That there was a title, a different title, or... A review of it, a, um... A review. You're close. There's a key word you're looking for. Oh, it's a summary.

Uh... I mean, you could call it that. There's a word you're all dancing around. A punchline. It did give away the punchline, which would be a... An answer. A spoiler? Spoiler.

Spot on. The second group had also been given a paragraph which spoiled the ending. And in 11 out of 12 of those stories, they preferred the spoiled version. Why? They picked 11 strange people for this study. 11 stories. I don't know what the sample size was, which is also slightly questionable here.

But the story goes that, no pun intended, 11 out of 12 of those stories were preferred when they had a spoiler. If you want a theory that a psychologist pulled out of nowhere, people find it easier to understand the plot when they know what's coming. But how much of this is replication crisis? How much of this is a very nice article that the BBC summarized in 2011? I couldn't tell you. Feels antithetical to this podcast's format, you could say.

You should try that with this episode. See how people like it. Caroline, the next question is yours. Whenever you're ready. This question has been sent in by Ian Richens. The GoldenEye 007 speedrunning community... Yes! I'm just going to sit down for this one.

I got nothing. I played it when I was like 12 and got nothing since then here's the question so the golden eye 007 speedrunning community became suspicious when players of a later n64 game perfect dark began to top the leaderboards they used an undetectable technique that required no technical ability. What was it? Oh. One more time.

The Goldeneye 007 speedrunning community became suspicious when players of a later N64 game, Perfect Dark, began to top the leaderboards. They used an undetectable technique that required no technical ability. What was it? Okay, so first of all all i'll say straight away is that tom and i are big speed running fans that tom that tom not not this tom the other tom

younger tom yeah there's there's 100 been a youtube thumbnail about this exact thing that i didn't click on tom what is that thing that you can do to... It's like an assisted... A TAS speedrun. Tool-assisted speedrun. Is it a TAS speedrun? So it has nothing to do with hacking the game or doing anything like that.

And you said this is something to do with the sequel to Goldeneye, right? But people from the first game were the ones that caught it? Is that correct? I think it is people who were playing Perfect Dark. Okay. So Perfect Dark had something that Goldeneye did not. This is where old man Tom rises from his chair

and sort of cracks his bones and goes, Back in my day, the N64 had a rumble pack, so it did. And I think Perfect Dark came with a memory expansion module or something like that, but the N64 had stuff you could physically plug into the back of the controller to do some stuff. Beyond that, I don't know, because I never had an N64. do some stuff. Beyond that, I don't know, because I never had an N64. My entire N64 knowledge comes from University and Endless Games of Mario Kart

Double Dash, which is the best Mario Kart. And I've all broken no argument on this. That's worth a dozen times. Yeah, I'm wondering if it is some, I'm thinking it might be some hardware hack like that, where you can unplug, plug in to like maybe reload a save or to or maybe like a second player caroline said

it's not no hack yeah so it was undetectable and that you could not tell what the trick was by watching like a tape of a player's game so you couldn't walk like if you were watching it on youtube or something like that you wouldn't walk like if you were watching it on youtube or something like that you wouldn't be able to tell if somebody had taped the game you wouldn't be able to tell what the trick was having your older cousin do it and then telling your friends yeah so it's something they're physically doing yeah if it's something in the hardware that i assume you wouldn't be able to see that on the stream is it something in the hardware tom it sounds like it's not it might not be it's god-nigh deterministic so does it have a random number generator in there

that they're playing with somehow because a lot of games will just rely on a roll of the dice which i know from matt parker's video on minecraft no nothing like that it's something about it must be something about the way perfect dark works that they have imported somehow um does it have to do with the frame rate no because some some some games when you like bump the frame rate to above what they were going to be played at, sometimes the logic will run all the other code twice as well, like if you double the frame rate. I had a book like that in my game, actually.

So I'm very familiar with that. I had to work with that issue before. Was it like a physical accessory that came with Perfect Dark that they're using? So it is something that was a feature of perfect dark which was not a feature of goldeneye of the game itself think about what you're doing in these games what what specifically are you playing oh is it wait wait can i ask is it is it a um is it like a like a like a like a toy gun accessory or something that you can point, maybe? It's not a toy gun, but you're like getting...

Oh, but that last thing that you said is along the right... What was that last thing? What was that last thing you said, Tom? That very last word that you said. Toy gun accessory or something. Something. Great. You said something about pointing it. Mouse? Is it you can use a mouse and keyboard?

Goldeneye was a nightmare to aim in. I remember that. You had to hold down... Yeah, yeah. Assuming that the kids in the room have never played Goldeneye on an N64. Wait a second. It was a nightmare because they hadn't invented

how to aim properly yet. And it was this horrible... Do you have two people one person just aiming no you're so close though with the aiming problem a feat that perfect dark had that gold and i did not have auto aim no not auto aim not quite a sensitivity to the to aiming i will give you a further clue it was a you needed a physical item to do this this technique which you could maybe like attach to your screen or you could use it to adjust your screen somehow something like this maybe it's not quite that it's not like the the duck hunt like like little

gun attachment thing, is it? No. So you're thinking too much of, like, an attachment to the game. Think about less about something you could attach, like an attachment that you could buy. Maybe go more towards something you might have around your home, some stationery that could help you out with this. Oh, oh, did they tape something to like the centre of the screen to aim?

Really? They just added a crosshair. They just added a crosshair with a bit of... That's exactly what they did. I have to assume that once the GoldenEye players realised that you could do that, they then started to get better again. It's not like there's anything particularly special about that.

I have no clue, to be honest, if that's what they then went on to do, but that's certainly what players of Perfect Dark were doing. Aiming was a nightmare. I remember playing multiplayer Goldeneye, and you had two options. You either had to just line up correctly in the middle of the screen so you knew you'd hit someone or learn this incredibly intricate thing where you had to move with one thumb and then hold down a button and aim the crosshair with the other and

hope it worked and by that point someone had shot you like yeah you just put a crosshair in the middle of this of course you do yeah i'm truly i'm truly, I'm thinking, I'm in Caroline's shoes, thinking of all the times we were like, what if it has to do with interpolating the frame rate? And then if you do this, and you're just like, sticky note on the screen. Just put a bit of Blu-Tack in the middle of your screen. There you go. That's so interesting.

I won't lie, I've spent so many hours watching Breath of the Wild speed runs over the last couple of months that I could not even conceive that that might have been an option. That's so good. That's so good. At the start of the show, I asked which 1989 live-action Disney film has a grammatical mistake in its title.

Assuming that most of our audience has already Googled 1989 live-action Disney film has a grammatical mistake in its title. Assuming that most of our audience has already googled 1989 live-action Disney film, does anyone want to take a quick shot at which one it is? Is it because The Lion King is technically an elected democracy? 1989. 1989. 1989. It's a special effects based family film and they used the

past tense of a verb incorrectly 1989 special effects so was it 3D animated? no but they had a 3D version in one of the theme parks later fascinating Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast Honey I Shrunk the Kids

which should have been Honey I Shrunk the Kids, which should have been Honey, I Shrank the Kids. Or alternatively, if you feel like not blaming anyone, Honey, the Kids Have Been Shrunk. And we'd like to thank the YouTube commenter Ontario Traffic Man, who complained that our title, The Furniture That Shrunk, was grammatically incorrect for inspiring that question. Thank you very much, Ontario Traffic. Thank you very much to all of our players. Now, at this point, normally I hand over to each person individually

to say what they're working on, but in this case, good luck. Someone take it. Tell us about the podcast. We have already talked about a lot of topics that are similar, like the replication crisis in this episode. We host a science and comedy podcast called Let's Learn Everything. We learn about science and a little bit of everything else. Caroline, give us some topics. Oh, so recently we covered topics like talking about the radium girls.

That was a recent miscellaneous topic. Ella covered the TB crisis, which was absolutely fascinating. It's all very light, very fun and light stuff we're doing. Yeah, you know, absolutely, right? Trying to think of one that Tom covered recently. Tom, what did you last cover? I did graffiti recently and that was very fun. That was a big like...

Oh, you did? That was fantastic. Yeah. And if you want to know more about this show, you can do that at lateralcast.com where you can also send in your own ideas for questions. We are at Lateral Cast on pretty much every social network, and you can find video highlights every week at youtube.com slash lateralcast. With that, thank you very much to Caroline Roper, Tom Lum,

Shiver Me Brain Cells, and... I've been Tom Scott and that's been Lateral.