Line #6 Series/BrainiacScienceAbuse


1	[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brainiacmh3.png]]
2
3	->''"Is looking at a woman's breasts for thirty minutes the equivalent of a thirty-minute workout?"''
4	-->-- '''Creator/RichardHammond''', ''Brainiac: Science Abuse''
5
6	''Brainiac: Science Abuse'' is a British television series, originally presented by Creator/RichardHammond and then by Vic Reeves, assisted by Jon Tickle (a former ''Series/BigBrother'' housemate) and an army of nameless "Brainiacs", used as human guinea-pigs. The series ran from 2003 to 2008.
7
8	Ostensibly a "[[EdutainmentShow we make science fun]]" programme, it generally displays about as much scientific rigor as a dried kumquat, preferring instead to come up with a series of excuses for showing cool stuff, usually with a little bit of scientific explanation of why the stuff is cool in that way.
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10	It took the part of ''Series/MythBusters'' where stuff went boom and ran with it. There is generally no attempt made at producing scalable, repeatable experiments to actually determine a result -- it's more along the lines of "Wahey, if you do ''this'' you can make it go bang! This works because there's a sudden release of energy."
11
12	Just occasionally, something genuinely interesting slips through, though, and one Brainiac skit was shown on QI - they filled a swimming pool with custard (a non-newtonian fluid) and had Jon Tickle run up and down on it, to the childlike glee of Hammond.
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14	Original presenter Richard Hammond is a well-known car nut and presenter of ''Series/TopGear'', and as such has something of a dislike of the caravans that clog Britain's roads every bank holiday. The show therefore made something of a specialty of destroying caravans in the most explosive way possible.
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16	Beginning from the fifth season, he quit the show, with Vic Reeves taking over. The new host brought around some minor changes (for one, deliberately acting as a guy who has no clue whatsoever, unlike Hammond), but the premise didn't change.
17
18	!!Notable "experiments":
19	* Running on custard.
20	* Can you smell fear? A vertiginous Brainiac is given a terrifying ride in a cherry picker, while another runs laps to get hot and sweaty and a third relaxes as a control. A female brainiac correctly identifies the frightened Brainiac by smell.
21	* Alkali metals (more specifically, lithium through caesium) in a bath tub - this experiment gained infamy in the example that it was quite rapidly disproven and revealed to have been faked! Keep an eye out for the ridiculously-visible ''detonator wire'' during the supposedly-explosive reaction of caesium.[[note]]Chemically speaking, caesium ''is'' reactive enough to make containers explode dramatically, but pouring a small amount of it into a bathtub won't do very much. The caesium releases just as much energy as in a smaller container, but because the bathtub holds a volume of water on several orders of magnitude larger than the capacity of the ampule of caesium, the shockwaves released by the chemical reaction, which would make a glass beaker explode, begin bouncing off the bathtub, causing the water to churn for a few seconds and then stop rather gently. In addition, the amount of hydrogen gas (of which its expansion is critical in creating a fiery explosion when it gets ignited by the reaction) actually ''goes down'' per gram of metal, the further you go down through the alkali metals - simply put, you'd need a lot more caesium to make the explosion seem that bright; in reality, there'd be very little flames if any in a volume of water that large. In order to make the reaction seem more dramatic, the production crew simply attached some explosives to the side of the tub not visible from the camera, and then set it off when the metal was supposedly released.[[/note]]
22	* Thermite - can it actually burn through ''anything''?
23	* Do you weigh 1/4 lb more after eating a quarter-pounder?
24	* What happens when you attach carbon dioxide fire extinguishers to various wheeled devices and try to race them? Much hilarity. The shopping trolley goes round in circles, the skateboard departs without its rider and the wheelchair is best. Best not to ask about the rollerskates.
25	* Swimming in syrup. Jon Tickle thought he'd go faster because the viscosity of the syrup would generate more force, while Richard thought the greater resistance caused by same would slow Jon up. Richard turned out to be right-he even gleefully noted that Jon, in his exhaustion, had started cutting across the middle of the pool and ''still'' couldn't beat his time from the water-filled pool.
26	* Brainiac VS Beast: the perhaps most abused Brainiac competes against (other) animals in various fields. Usually ends up losing and going feral.
27	* Stuff UsefulNotes/{{NASA}} never tried. Hilarious "experiments" with rockets.
28	* Things but veeeeery slooooow: a segment in which the Brainiacs do random stuff, but in slow-motion.
29	* Photos magnified X amount of times and pulled back to reveal the object.
30	* X vs Y: Where opposite adjectives are made to compete with each other (like fat vs. skinny)
31	----
32	!!This TV series contains examples of:
33
34	* ButtMonkey: Dr. Bunhead, who is described as "science's biggest loser" and suffers in some manner at the end of his regular segments ("Pub Science," "Service Station Science" and "On the Pull").
35	** Also the many nameless Brainiacs, whose status as perpetual guinea pigs earns them nothing but disrespect.
36	** The Caravans and mannequins are probably the only things treated worse than the Braniacs, being constantly blown up, attacked and dropped from heights, among other things.
37	* CatchPhrase
38	** "Do not try this at home ...no really, ''don't.''"
39	** Later changed to "Do not try this at home ...or anywhere else, for that matter!"
40	* DoubleEntendre:
41	** Much of the voiceover whenever the ridiculously-hot Professor Myang-Li is on screen would have some kind of innuendo. Which went double when she tested whether a certain kind of fruit sinks or swims in a swimming pool.
42	** A later segment was a durability test on various objects called "How hard is your thing?" presented by a woman who begun the segment with "I love hard things," and would ask "How hard is your thing?". This would be met with some variant of "Very hard", by the (invariably male) responder.
43	* EdutainmentShow: It's a show about scientific inquiry, as well as getting to see idiots do stupid things and injuring themselves.
44	* ElectricTorture: One of the experiments done on the show is about activities you can't do, whilst being electrocuted. A Brainiac is hooked up to 9-Volt electrical pads on the body and is subsequently electrocuted periodically whilst trying to do some activities like shaving or trying to be a waiter.
45	* {{Fanservice}}: People get half-naked a lot. And Prof. Myang-Li conducts all of her experiments wearing a bikini. No subtlety at all in her segments.
46	* HoldUpYourScore: "Explosive Of The Week", which happens once every episode of Series 2 revolves around the Brainiac Babes blowing something up using an explosive of their choice, and judging how good the explosion was. This was user-interactive and a random viewer was given the opportunity to blow something up during the final episode of Series 2.
47	* LovelyAssistant: Professor Myang Li, who determines "Does this fruit float?" Given her {{Stripperiffic}} outfit, her academic credentials are called into question.
48	* MicrowaveMisuse: Done once per episode with a wide variety of objects. Due to the often explosive results of these experiments, there were multiple DoNotTryThisAtHome warnings both before and after.
49	* PersonaNonGrata: "Pub Science with Doctor Bunhead" skits always end with Doctor Bunhead getting kicked out of the pub he does his science experiments in, regardless of how successful his experiments are, with the bar owner usually telling him to stay away, or outright banning him from the pub.
50	* RuleOfFunny: The driving force behind many of the "experiments" is that they're just funny to watch and try. Why else would you try filling a swimming pool with custard and walking on it?
51	* RunningGag
52	** Richard Hammond's hatred of caravans, and the frequent explodification of same.
53	** Also, Prof. Myang-Li testing whether various fruits sink in a swimming pool.
54	* {{Spinoff}}: ''Brainiac: History Abuse''. The same concept, but with different hosts and historical stuff replacing science.
55	* StuffBlowingUp: Especially caravans, but also just about everything else.
56	* ToiletHumor: One experiment at a random home shows why antacids like Alka Seltzer tablets make people fart.
57	* TomboynessUpgrade: In season 2, Professor Myang-Li is dressed like a Hawaiian hula dancer. In season 3, she trades in her grass skirt and coconut bra for a pair of jeans and a flannel top.
58	* WeNeedADistraction: '''Vic Reeves when he tried to distract a Brainiac to steal beer cans -''' "Look! The sun!"

Context Series / BrainiacScienceAbuse