Brainiac: Science Abuse

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Brainiac: Science Abuse
Brainiac logo
Genre	Reality Television / Documentary Film
Starring	Richard Hammond (Series One to Four) Vic Reeves (Series Five onwards) Jon Tickle Charlotte Hudson
Country of origin	United Kingdom
Production
Producer(s)	Unknown (Previously Granada Productions)
Running time	60 or 30 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	Sky One, Sky Two, Sky Three, G4 (US), Network Ten (AU) It is not on in Australia any more, Discovery Channel (PL), (DK), VIVA (DE), Discovery Channel (SV/SE) (Discovery Channel NL) Veronica NL, Discovery Channel (SKY Italia), Nelonen (FI), Channel 8 (ערוץ 8) (Israel)
Original run	Thursday November 13, 2003 –
Chronology
Related shows	Brainiac: History Abuse Brainiac's Test Tube Baby
Links
IMDb profile

Brainiac: Science Abuse is a British science-themed entertainment TV show. It is broadcast in the UK and Ireland on Sky One (and repeated on Sky Two and Sky Three), and is made by Granada Productions. It is also shown in the US on the cable network G4, in Australia on Network Ten (Not shown in Australia any more) , in New Zealand on TV2, in Israel on Channel 8 (ערוץ 8), and in other European countries (and South Africa) on Discovery Channel. The presenters are Richard Hammond (also in Top Gear) and Jon Tickle (formerly of Big Brother). In series 2 Charlotte Hudson joined Hammond and Tickle to bring the total number of hosts up to 3. In series 5, Vic Reeves will replace Hammond as one of the presenters.^[1]

The show refers to people who examine and test the experiments as Brainiacs. Each episode would finish with the team blowing up a caravan. This could be related to Richard Hammond's Top Gear heritage, on which caravans have regularly been destroyed - used as a target for a compressed air powered car-catapult and conkers being played with two caravans held up by cranes.

1 Show ratings
2 History
3 Experiments
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Show ratings

The program has been a huge ratings and creative success for Sky and is now one of their flagship programs and regular recommissions. Due to the success of their mums in bed. the original program, a sister program, Brainiac: History Abuse, presented by Charlotte Hudson, began on Sky One on 1 June 2004, and a live version, Brainiac's Test Tube Baby, was broadcast alongside the fourth series.The 4th series was shown in 2006.

[edit] History

First Series

Series 1 of Brainiac hit the British small screen in 2003 on Sky One, a UK subscription-based television channel from the digital satellite broadcaster BSkyB. It featured a wide variety of experiments including testing to see whether a mobile phone would ignite petrol vapors, walking on custard and testing the effects of electric shocks on various Brainiacs.

Second Series

The second series premiered on Sky One in 2004. It saw the start of "Brainiac Snooker", in which World Snooker professional Quinten Hann would pot the last six balls on a table (Yellow, Green, Brown, Blue, Pink and Black) into the pocket causing the caravan rigged with a different explosive to explode. It premiered in the US on G4 on 29 August 2005 as part of the Midnight Spank programming block; and is also shown on VIVA in Germany, JIMtv in Belgium, Veronica and Discovery Channel in the Netherlands, Network Ten in Australia, TV2 in New Zealand, and Arts Central in Singapore, Discovery Channel in Scandinavia, Discovery Channel in Romania and Nelonen in Finland. The second series also introduced Charlotte Hudson as a third, but minor, host. It also saw the introduction of what then became long term character "Professor Myang-Li", played by Rachel Grant.

Brainiac recording on location

Third Series

The third series premiered on Sky One on 25 August 2005. It featured Brainiac Golf (much like Brainiac Snooker, only this time with different salts to colour the explosions), Lad v. Lass, Thermite, Does being electrocuted affect your ability at work (human statue, flair bartending, darts player), Things the instruction manuals don't warn you about, 47 Second Science, Diana Ross and her Chain Reaction, and testing which things break and which things bounce after a ten foot drop. Dr John P Kilcoyne, associate dean of the University of Sunderland had a regular slot where he mixed various chemicals to see whether they Fizz or Bang. The third series premiered on G4 as part of the Midnight Spank block in Spring of 2006.

Fourth Series

The fourth series premiered on Sky One on 16 July 2006. It introduced Brainiac Darts, where Bobby George threw a perfect set, always finishing on the Double Top which triggered the explosion of a caravan, and a new "I Can Do Science Me" which is set around auditions. There is also a feature called "Things What My Body Does" in which a member of the public is filmed doing something extraordinary with their bodies. The first three were: a woman making a very odd "rumbling" noise with her tongue, a man with his hands together smoothly waving his fingers and another man moving his eyebrows in a "Lively" way. It also introduced a new feature called "Brainiac for a Day" where contestants could bring an item of their choice to blow up. It was set out as a game show with the hosts Dolly Girl and Dolly Boy.

Fifth Series

The fifth series is currently in production as stated by Jon Tickle on Brainiac's Test Tube Baby. It is due to premiere on Sky One in 2007. The production of this series is being undertaken by Granada Productions.

It has also been announced that Vic Reeves is to take over from Richard Hammond. This was announced before Hammond's car accident in September 2006.

[edit] Experiments

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Brainiac logo featured on a shirt

The presenters perform unusual experiments or demonstration procedures "so you don't have to". The destruction of caravans is a recurring theme in many of the episodes. These experiments are often non-scientific and are undertaken in the interests of entertainment (many involving large explosions) rather than pure science. The show does however do a reasonable job of demonstrating some simple concepts of experimental design.

At what point does "a bit" become "a lot" ?
Safe-cracking (involving methods such as acid, explosives, and a Challenger 2 Tank)
Things not to put into a microwave. (Hammond says: "Do not try this at home. No really, don't.")
Celebs on Helium - celebrities are invited to take a balloon of helium and say "Welcome to Braniac: Science Abuse!"
Attempting to destroy a black box, which is in fact yellow. A follow-up to Safe-cracking, a flight data recorder is subjected to various abuses attempting to destroy it, such as having a group of American Civil War reenactors open fire with rifles and cannons, dunking it in a vat of acid, and spraying it with napalm and finally succumbing to a garbage dump compacter used to crush cars.
Walking across (and standing in) a swimming-pool full of custard to demonstrate the properties of a non-Newtonian fluid.
Does being happy enhance your (mental) performance?
Which fruit floats?
What's this? A sample from an object has been magnified 25-450 times under a microscope and you have to guess what the object is.
Comparing the effects of what would happen to a fat guy and a thin guy (the advantages and disadvantages) in a given situation.
The advantages and disadvantages of being tall as compared to short - or male as compared to female.
Situations in which it's better to be either tired or wired.
Investigating the propulsive possibilities of CO₂ Fire extinguishers.
Office Buoyancy Aids - testing which items in an office work best as flotation aids in the event of a flood
Things Jon Tickle's body can't do.
Things Jon Tickle's body can do.
"Tickle's Teasers", supposedly unanswerable questions
Things you can't do while being electrocuted.
Things you can do with Thermite.
47 second science: Tackling life's big questions in bite sized chunks
Granny Brainiac: Home spun cures from an old woman that Brainiac calls "the nation's favorite old dear."
Will it break or will it bounce? Dropping things from a height and seeing if they will break or bounce.
Pub Science - performing experiments in a pub with ordinary items. Invariably this results in the experimenter (Dr. Bunhead) being theatrically ejected by security staff and banned.
At Home with Dr. Bunhead - household mayhem usually involving some explosive chemical reaction.
You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll - a boombox is subjected to various forms of violence (such as having a caravan dropped on it and being burned with a flamethrower) until it ceases to play a tape of the Twisted Sister song of the same name. You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll was never actually played. The tape never survives.
Funfair physics - investigating things such as what is the scariest ride, if centrifugal force stops you being splashed by a drink on a roller-coaster loop-the-loop and finding the best/fastest way to slide down a giant slide.
Domestic Disasters: Things they don't say in the instruction manual - e.g., they don't tell you not to put dangerous chemicals in an appliance, but Brainiac shows you why they should. E.g.: Plastic explosives in a toaster, nitroglycerin in a washing machine, Potassium in a washing machine, and a fire extinguisher in an oven (which, ironically, causes the oven to explode in a fireball).
Blowing up pretty much anything - but preferably caravans.
101 Uses for a Wee - 'practical applications' for urine.
Tina Turner and her Bunsen Burner - A rather obvious impersonator of pop star Tina Turner "takes a break" from show business to do explosive science with her Bunsen burner "like she did in her lab in Nutbush", and with any type of explosives such as gunpowder that she needs to destroy her choice of a coloured car; she lights it up with her burner and waits until it becomes a metal burning fireball.
Producing improvised "armour" using ordinary household items (such as pillows, toilet seats and woks) and testing their durability against weapons such as the slingshot, longbow and crossbow in the event that your house is under siege by "nutters".
Explosive of the Week - Brainiac beauties use different types of explosives on different objects and have three of their friends rate the blast on a scale of 1 to 10.
Diana Ross and her Chain Reaction- Yet another rather obvious impersonator, as "Diana Ross" finds joy in starting off chain reactions which result in the explosive destruction of a car.
Does eating only fish for a month make you clever?
Dr. Bunhead on the road - Dr Bunhead drives to a school in his ice-cream truck (Dr. Bunheads Ices) and when the schoolchildren come to buy icecreams from him, he denies that it's an icecream truck, and then takes out two random chemicals, and mixes them together. The result is mayhem.
Brainiac Snooker - A Brainiac goes head to head against snooker player Quinten Hann. Every time a ball is pocketed, it sets off a fuse, which ignites a caravan filled with a unique gas, such as propane, butane, or pure oxygen.
Peter Logan's Exploding Paste, where one of the Brainiac staff, Peter Logan, plays pranks on co-workers using a very mildly explosive material, made from iodine crystals and "one other secret ingredient" according to the show. The "secret ingredient" is really household ammonium hydroxide. The resulting combination is nitrogen triiodide.
Which Household oil is the slipperiest - the battle between cod liver oil, baby oil and sunflower oil to see which oil really is the slipperiest down a 25ft slope
Does looking at the breasts of an attractive girl for 30 minutes work out your heart as much as 30 minutes of exercise?
Adding alkaline metals rubidium and caesium to water.
Will it Fizz or Bang? - Mixing two substances together to see if it will fizz or explode. The most recent series has seen this replaced by "Glow or Blow?", which is much the same principle, with two substances mixed together to see if they will glow or blow (explode).
Is it better to eat dog food or junk food for a week?
Does having sex before playing a game of football improve your game?