Hi I’m John Green.
Welcome to my salon.
This is Mental Floss on YouTube.
And I am wearing a bathrobe backwards because I’ve been told by the Internet that this
is an excellent substitute for a Snuggie.
Survey says...
PASS.
Plus, it’s got this belt, which makes me feel a little bit like a Jedi, or at least
Princess Leia.
And that’s the first “life hack” of many that I’m going to test for you today.
THIS is a black t-shirt covered in deodorant.
Clearly it is not my size.
The Internet tell me that I can remove this deodorant with a dryer sheet.
Yeah, I mean, you know, marginal pass?
I’ll tell you what will work: a laundry machine.
This is a Coke bottle with a hole cut in it, very common, you know.
And then I’m gonna stick this in here.
The Internet tells me it’s gonna be an amazing amplifier.
Of all the things in human history that have successfully amplified sound, this Coke bottle
amplified it the least.
But technically “pass.”
But why am I even bothering with iPhones and plastic bottles?
We all know that life hacks are all about the FOOD, so let’s get to some of those.
Apparently the best way to eat Cheetos is with chopsticks because then you don’t get
orange stuff all over your hands.
Also you look really cool.
Meredith, thank you for getting me these dummy chopsticks that anyone can use.
You know what?
Pass.
Now I can’t finish eating these until after I’ve hosted this video, so I’m going to
seal the bag with a pants hanger that I’m going to use as a chip clip.
Aaaaaaoooh!
Pass, although there are very sharp edges.
If you’re looking for a healthier snack, I’m going to try to core this head of lettuce
by slamming it on this cutting board.
One, two - ow, aaoooh, mmph, fail and I hurt myself.
Now if you ever find yourself with a cup of applesauce and no spoon, it is supposedly
very simple to take the foil from the top and mold it into a mini spoon.
Do some twisties.
Twisty twisty twisty.
Turn this into a spoon.
Yup, there we go, nice little spoon.
And then…
Oh!
Pass!
Okay, I also have a bag of chocolate chips...because my grocery list is very strange.
Would you believe that some people don’t actually pour this whole thing into their
cookie batter?
Lucky for them, you can just grab one of these water bottle tops you always have sitting
around and reseal the bag!
You unscrew the top here.
Aaaugh.
Pass, although all things being equal, I prefer the pants hanger.
Next, we have a hack for people who do not eat an entire cake in one sitting.
Mark, I thought that you said these came from the Internet.
If you don’t want your frosting to stick to the Saran wrap, just use some uncooked
spaghetti.
Stick it in the cake and then you cling wrap over it.
I’m so bad at cling wrap.
Dang it.
Oh, this is a disaster.
Just… aw, Fail!
Just finish the cake.
Man, all these food life hacks are making me thirsty.
I’m going to open this bottle of beer with an eyelash curler.
Oh… yeah!
Ahhhh, pass.
All right, let’s end the over 21 portion of the program.
Meredith has clearly been cooking with this sticker still on the pot.
I’ve been told that vodka can remove that sticker.
All right, get it nice and vodka-y.
And then remove the sticker.
No, it’s a fail.
Here’s a life hack that actually changed my life.
You know those ketchup holders from fast food restaurants?
Whaaat?
They hold so much more ketchup than you know about!
We’re going to do an extremely scientific survey.
One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, five one
thousand.
One one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand, four one thousand, five one
thousand, six one thousand, seven one thousand, eight one thousand, nine one thousand.
It goes on and on and it’s much better!
While I was out getting those ketchup packets, I also picked up a drink with a plastic lid
so I can test if the lid will really serve as a coaster.
No, it doesn’t.
It is not the right shape at all.
Fail.
I mean, not that it matters.
As a person who frequently drinks from Arby’s cups, I can tell you that we as a population
are not terribly worried about our coffee tables.
And now I’m going to water the plants, which is not something that I usually do, but whatever,
it’s a life hack.
If you don’t have a watering can, I’ve been told that you can just poke holes in
a bottle of water and - get a watering can.
Fail.
Okay, craft time.
Meredith drew this on a piece of wax paper and I should be able to transfer that image
onto this plain white candle to turn it into a Mental Floss work of art if I apply heat
via this hairdryer.
Okay.
I’m going to spin this around.
This is the moment of truth.
Dang it!
That is so disappointing!
Fail.
All right, more crafts!
I’m going to combine a cup of salt, a cup of flour, a cup of water, and this food coloring
to make my own paint!
Cup of salt, cup of flower, cup of water, woah woah there.
Slow down, cowboy.
And a full thing of green food coloring.
All right, this is the consistency of Play-doh, not paint, so I’m going to go ahead and
give it a fail.
But I’m also going to try and eat it.
Not bad.
Little salty.
Meredith, will you do some research and find out if this is how they made Nickelodeon slime?
How do you open a key ring without breaking a nail?
Apparently by prying it open with a staple remover.
It works in the sense that it does pry open the key ring but not in the sense that it,
like, helps you get the key out.
So fail.
And while you’re using office supplies to do things completely unrelated to office work,
try getting rid of grape seeds with a paper clip.
I mean, I’m just going to predict fail.
This is like performing surgery with the world’s least-sharp knife.
I mean, I can technically remove the grape seeds.
Actually, you know what?
This is not bad.
Pass.
=If you don’t want to waste a paperclip, there’s another option.
I have the Cheeto-chopstick from earlier and also the Coke-with-the-hole-in-it, the world’s
worst amplifier.
And now, I’m going to remove grape seeds comme ça.
Fail.
Oh hi, giraffe.
Ever come across a tough jar to open and happen to have a cut-open tennis ball on hand?
Of course you have.
I’m going to try to open this jar with the tennis ball.
Meredith, by the way, would like for me to point out that cutting this tennis ball in
half was the hardest single thing she has ever done in her life.
And she is a saint and a scholar.
Was it for nothing, Meredith?
Or is it, in fact, a life hack.
I mean, that is not a hard jar to open.
I guess… pass?
I’m not really the right guy for this life hack though because I’m wearing my guns.
Can you store a bagel in an old CD spindle?
What?
Yes.
That is a game-changer.
Pass.
While we’re on the topic of carbohydrates: everyone hates that disgusting bite of like
straight up bread that happens when you’re biting into a sandwich.
But rather than throw cheese and meat all around the sandwich willy-nilly, I have been
told there is a way to fill your entire bread with cheese.
You cut two pieces of circular cheese in half and then you go… what?
Are you serious?
Yessss.
It did, it worked, pass!
I just upped my grilled cheese game big time.
But if you’re more of a pizza person, and let’s face it, if you love freedom, you
are, but you don’t have a pizza cutter, you can always just use your kitchen scissors.
I don’t understand why the Internet thinks this is a life hack when I started doing it
when I was four, but anyway, pass.
And why use a knife to even out measurements of things like cocoa when you could just use
a contraption made out of masking tape?
Pass!
I have here a pre-popped bag of popcorn.
And as we all know, the worst part of eating microwave popcorn from the bag is when your
hand rubs up against the fake butter stuff and you feel the shame when you realize what
you were actually eating.
The Internet has solved this problem when you just put the bag on its side, cut a hole
out of the top.
Mmm, delicious popcorn, no weird butter feeling.
Pass.
Now we’re going to the kitchen for some life hacks.
Before we started shooting, Mark put this envelope in the freezer.
And apparently, I can now open it with this letter opener.
Okay, kind of.
And I can go in and explore the-- mm, mm, mmmmm.
It’s pretty frozen.
The idea is that you can reseal it and no one will ever know that you opened the envelope
which is, just, fail.
I don’t know if this is really a life hack, but if you open both sides of a 12-pack of
soda, you can just - And then all your soda’s in the fridge already.
I guess that’s a solid pass.
If you’re down to the end of your Cheerios here, but you don’t want to get all those
gross little crumb things in it, you can just sift the Cheerios.
And you’re left with pure cereal.
Pass!
We’ve already seen how useful these pants hangers can be, but did you know that they
can also improve your cookbooking.
Put the clip right here, hang the hanger up right there, aaaand, I’m cookin’ and I’m
lookin’.
Pass.
Thanks for watching Mental Floss here on YouTube, which is made with the help of all these nice
people.
Every week we endeavor to answer one of your mind-blowing questions.
This week’s question comes from Liz Campbell
Hi, Liz.
I hope you don’t mind if I try to open this blister pack with a can opener while I answer
your question.
The question is, “Where the heck does it say that Humpty Dumpty is an egg?”
This, by the way, is a fail.
Everyone knows you can’t open a blister pack ever no matter what.
But back to your question, Liz.
It doesn’t say that Humpty Dumpty is an egg.
The origin of the nursery rhyme is unclear, but many believe that it began as a riddle
with the answer being “an egg.”
That’s why Humpty Dumpty is often pictured as an egg.
Thanks for watching, don’t trust everything you see on the Internet.
But do use your pants hangers to clip your chips.
And as we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome.