Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Funny Bone

Episode Date: December 8, 2021

Hitting your funny bone doesn’t just hurt, it feels really weird too. That’s because you’re not hitting a bone at all, but instead the most vulnerable nerve in your body. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hey, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and it's just the

Chuck Chosh show, the short stuff. Let's just start. I thought something happens when we do short stuff. Because I'm trying to do something different and then I feel at it. We've been doing such a good job for 13 years and whenever we do short stuff, you're just like, I don't know how to do this anymore. Right. I don't, something, but I think it has to do with just trying to, trying too hard. There it is. They're looser. Okay. All right. They're looser. I think it's, I think it's fine.

Oh, maybe I'm not trying hard enough. So Chuck, since we're laughing here, let's talk about laughing. Great setup. Thank you. Again, I'm not trying hard enough. I don't know where we talked about this, but we, we did a little sidebar in this many, many years ago. No. In some episode, I don't know what it was, but it doesn't matter because the funny bone deserves its own little shorty episode. Everyone knows what we're talking about. We're talking about when you whack your elbow like on the corner of a counter or something

and you get that weird singular pain, singular sensation everywhere around the world. It's, it's, it's, it's kind of painful, but it's kind of stingy and shocky feeling. And it's, and it does kind of make you laugh sometimes. It's like hysterically, it's a weird, like I said, it's a singular feeling unlike hitting any other part of your body. It's hitting your funny bone. That's right. So it kind of, that's why it has its own name and its own thing. It is its own, its own experience for sure. And no one apparently from anywhere I could see is quite sure exactly where the funny bone got its name because what you're doing there

is hitting your funny bone, but what you're hitting is not really a bone. It's a nerve. Although some people think that it got its name from the bone right above this area that you're hitting, the humerus, which I like because it's, that's what I heard on the playground. Yeah. It's a little play on words. I think I might have heard that on the playground too. That's one of those first little kid factoids that they think, you know, you know why it's called that is because it's the humorous bone. Right. I think you're absolutely right. And then somebody else says, hey, you want some liquor made? And the other kid says, I'll sue your dad.

That's right. And then recess is over and you wonder where your life's gone. And you just go inside and eat glue and boogers. There you go. Yeah. You get right back on top of the horse. That's right. So the funny bone isn't a bone. I think probably everybody knows that. I regret saying it now, you know, that I think about it. But what you're actually doing is hitting a nerve, a specific nerve called the ulnar nerve that's responsible for, it's really niche. It's responsible for the sensation, singular sensation in your ring finger and your pinky finger. And you have one in each arm because you have a ring finger and pinky finger on each arm.

Ostensibly, both are receiving sensation and they're getting it from the ulnar nerve you have in each of your, your arms. Yeah. It begins in your spine and it goes from your neck all the way, all the way down your arm, all the way past your elbow, all the way to the tips of those little fingers there. And it's, I think there are only three primary nerves for your arm and that's one of them. And the big role of that is, aside from the sensation of those fingertips, is helping those muscles out, helping your hand coordinate movement, fine movement, and your grip, like helping your forearm control grip, which by the way, I just had a very weird sensation. I don't get massages much, but I just got a massage recently. And this dude

worked me over in the best way, but he did this thing where he was rolling down the inside of my forearm with his arm. And every time he hit like the midpoint, like Luke Skywalker, my hand would just clench shut. Oh, that's cool. It was so weird feeling and I laughed, I was like, boy, that feels really weird. And I tried to keep it from happening and he would roll down my forearm, my inner forearm and my hand would just go and close shut. It was like Empire Strikes Back. It was very strange. I'll bet it was funny for him to watch you try to play off like it wasn't a thing. Yeah, I tried to. And I'll bet that guy was like, I'm going to give him another one of these. It was pretty great actually. So they call it the Kung Fu grip move, I believe.

That's what it felt like. But yeah, that made me think of those. I mean, that's what's going on with those nerves. Yeah, I wonder if he was hitting your ulnar nerve. Probably. But you said something, you said a little jackpot a bit there, Chuck, that was the ulnar nerve goes from your spine to your neck, down your arm, through your elbow to your hand. And it is where it passes through your elbow that the potential for hitting your phony bone in that extremely weird singular sensation can take place. It feels like a cliffhanger to me. I think so. All right, we'll be back and tell you what's going on in that little spot right after this. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn

to when questions arise or times get tough, or you're at the end of the road. Ah, okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh, God. Seriously, I swear. And you won't have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep, we know that, Michael, and a different hot, sexy teen crush boy band are each week to guide you through life step by step. Not another one. Kids relationships life in general can get messy. You may be thinking this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody everybody about my new

podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Mangesh Atikular. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life. In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention. Because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, major league baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But

just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too. Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. All right. Here we are. We're in your elbow. And here's the big reveal. This is going to creep you out. You have a little tunnel there. I'm so creeped out.

That the ulnar nerve goes through called the cubital tunnel. It's very small. It's about four millimeters long. And it goes underneath. You know that bump, the little bony bump on your elbow is called the medial. Oh man, I had it earlier. Epicondyle. Yeah, I think so. Epicondyle. It's like Argyle, but Argyle's cousin. Epicondyle. All right. So your medial Epicondyle, that's that little bony bump on the inside of the back of your elbow there. And right there is where that nerve is sandwiched between your bone and your skin. And there's the reason it's really easy to get hurt is because there's not a lot there. And especially if your elbow is bent, it's kind of right there under the skin.

Right. So when you hit it, just right when your elbows bent, you're mashing your nerve against between the bone above it and whatever hard surface you're hitting it on. And the reason why you're hitting your funny bone is so weird is twofold. I have the impression, Chuck, that if your other nerves in your body were similarly exposed, like the ulnar nerve is through the, when it enters the cubital tunnel, that if you hit those nerves, you would have the same singular sensation, but you don't have nerves that are exposed like that elsewhere in your body, which is why it's just the funny bone. But that's the point. You're actually banging a nerve and you don't normally do that, which produces a different kind of pain than the normal pain you

get like when you accidentally like hit yourself in the testicles. Well, it's funny you bring that up because I wonder if there's a shorty on that because that is also a singular sensational pain. Okay. Save it. Save it. Let me just say it's different than when you accidentally punch yourself in the stomach. Okay. You're like stub your toe. That's another one. It's weird that you mentioned testicles though because that is a pain that feels different than any other pain. It is. And I think it was a terrible example now that you say that. But I'm glad that I said it because it brought up a future short stuff for us. That's right. But what you're talking about is the difference between nociceptive pain and actual nerve pain. Nociceptive being the

perception of pain, like when you stub your toe or something and your body using the nerves, send signals that say like, you need more clearance around your bed dummy. Don't do that again. Whereas the other kind of pain is actual literal pain on that nerve. Yeah. Like the nerves are involved in nociception, but they're just kind of like, oh, it's time to get to work and let this guy know to stop doing that. But that nerve pain is the actual nerve being hurt. And so it says, I'm reserving a special kind of pain for myself. Yeah. Wow. That's right. I don't know if you remember a couple of years ago when I banged my shin really badly. I did some kind of nerve damage. And for six months, I had a four inch space where it was

just dead on the front of my leg on my shin. It felt like it was is the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life. Wow. I'm glad it was just kicking my bed. Yeah. I mean, the numbness was fine. Like, I mean, it was it weirded me out. But when it actually happened, I cried. I like, I like crumbled to the floor and like, it wasn't crying, but like water just started pouring out of my eyes. Yeah, I know. It hurts so bad. Tough guy. No, that wasn't like, I hit my chin. I know what you mean. It was just like the body's reaction was, all right, we're going to start sending water out of your eyeballs now. Yeah, that is a weird reaction or responsive. Do you think about it? It is. But the short stuff. Right. The one good thing about hitting your funny bone

in particular, hitting that nerve is after a very short while, especially if you rub it for some weird reason, it will subside and you'll be, you'll go back to normal. Like you won't have that pain any longer. And by the way, there's one other thing about that funny bone pain that reveals that it's the ulnar nerve you're hitting. You'll notice that that pain shoots all the way down into your pinky and your ring finger because the ulnar nerve terminates there. Oh, I don't know if I've noticed that. It's been a while since I've hit the old funny nerve. That's why I'm going to start calling it. Okay. What about a cubital tunnel syndrome? That's another thing, right? It's like a chronic condition. Yeah, that's what I was going to say. There's some cases where you can have

like a strained ulnar nerve and it can produce chronic pain. Is that tennis elbow? I don't know. I don't know why they wouldn't call it tennis elbow. It seems a little bizarre not to, but maybe. Who knows? Just curious. Let's see. This was a Methodist hospital website we have to thank, a BBC site, and a couple other good ones that... Was it JamaicaHospital.org? I love that one. That's a classic. I wish that whole exchange would just be printed on a t-shirt. Oh, maybe we could sell that as a non-fungible token. Oh, that's a good one, but then somebody would just... Tarantino's getting sued. No, I didn't hear that. What are you talking about? He's trying to sell Pulp Fiction NFTs. He's trying to sell scenes from Pulp Fiction,

and Miramax is like, you don't own that. Wow. Yeah, very interesting. Surprising that he would do that. He's been in the business long enough that you'd think he would know what he can and can't do. You would think. Well, you got anything else? Nope. Okay, well, everybody that means short stuff is out. Stuff You Should Know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.