The genius of making a whole running gag about a quiz-show surrounding nonsense maths... It kind of melts my brain. Could that be numberwang? I have no idea.
This is made flesh all the runaway wack humor my highschool friends and I took too far, “but wouldn’t be awesome if all that happens and THEN there’s like a TV documentary about it and it just keeps getting worse and worse!!”... but someone ACTUALLY DID.
Computing numberwang isn't that difficult. I took a course in statistical morphology and it's proven to be of great use in calculating numberwang and even wangernumb (provided it's a non-dilute number). For instance, 8 is numberwang, but 8 isn't.
The famous thought experiment Schrodinger's Wang shows that the superposition of any number upon itself in quantum space may be simultaneously numberwang and not numberwang until someone claims that it is or it isn't, at which time it takes on one state or the other, but only from the observer's point of view.
If there's anything I've learned from Numberwang, it's that 1 is the prime numberwang, 2 is deadly to humans, 3 is not a numberwang, and 4 is definitely numberwang regardless of the number or sequence of numbers preceding it.
What's hilarious about the Russell scene is that in his 'Principia Mathematica' (written with Alfred North Whitehead) he takes exactly 162 pages to conclusively prove that 1+1=2.
Today Numberwang is a vast, global franchise like MacDonald's, U2 and the Catholic Churc all rolled into one. The relativly humble beginings of not yet existing...classic stuff
Fantastic! And he pulled out a picture John Bird: love it! He's of Bremner, Bird and Fortune (a hilariously funny British comedy trio, for anyone who doesn't know, especially good at but not limited to satire). This was only series two but somehow they managed to convince the BBC to pay for so many extras, such elaborate sets, costumes and props! One of the best shows that was ever on television: I so wish Mitchell and Webb would get back together, they wrote these scripts themselves and they're bloody brilliant!
@@davimurph That's Numberwang! Every time I watch their sketches I pick up on some nuanced detail I never spotted before (or maybe not so nuanced but it all flies over my head at once at a million miles an hour!) I just realised watching it again after you replied that they all stand when Webb starts humming the national anthem: brilliant!
We now know that millions of people contemplating the complex mathematics of numberwang brought humanity to the attention beings from non-Euclidian dimensions, causing The Event.
"I say chaps, you don't suppose we could use this machine for anything else do you?" "Like what?" " I dunno erm, eh something to help with the war or something..." "I'll just go check...NOOO! NUMBERWANG WAS DESIGNED TO HELP MANKIND NOT TO DESTROY!!"
a machine that gets a number, prints out if it's numberwang or not, and no one knows how it works...so basically that the first machine learning algorithm
People here are idiots. 6 is never numberwang unless 7 and 88 + 6 are simultaneously numberwang except if 4 was wangernumbed in later 15 pt bonus, however it is also numberwang when 6 and 65 are equal in bonus, unless the host announced the bonus before numberwang is called on 44 and 6 (or 23) but not 16. It's perfectly clear.
That only works with American rules. I prefer the UK version where 6 is numberwang when you take the square root of the previous numberwang, times it by 83.4, subtract one fifth and then times it by wangernumb. Much more versatile that way.
myth1032 I'm Canadian, so we play by Mussolini's Italy rules (Canada's numberwang is 1943.65). Here 6 and 7 are both numberwang, but not at the same time unless sqrt 9 is equal to twentibly. Naturally this only applies if 99 is a wangernumb, but that's most of the time since we usually tie 50 to 8.
myth1032 I think it's more Australian rules, American rules states that 6 is never a numberwang unless it's combined with 66 and add 111. But then, you must divide by pi/2 or 4, depending on the round,and multiply by 8 to get numberwang. But be careful, if you multiply by .8, 18 or 80, then you would be wangernumbed. (Which, fun facts, are the total opposite the Kim's North Korean, Hitler's German and Stalin's Russian rules)
Fools. Do you not know that Sub-Universal Standard Numberwang is the combination of Euclid-Vanzetti 5th Quadrant Zetarithm Type Numbers, when the logistic anti-points of Divine Metaphysics, by Japrussian-Netherlandian Secular Monk Barmetto Golinthian, and NOT with the Fork System of Paramilitary Metric Third Volume conversions. That is Democratic Eastern Orthodox Cuba's Numberwang binary rotation system, and in this day and age that Numberwang will simply not do. In conclusion, both 6 and 7 are Numberwang, but automatically Numberwang has Wangerinfinitariumed itself, following The G=6.67 10^-11 Sociopolitical Parameters of 6 (RIP 2996-Event Horizon). The nature of 6 itself is a walking Trunkarithmic contradiction, thus it both is, is not, and exists Adjacent inward to the curvature of Marx-Relpek Space, within coordinates "32, 25, 1(;, j, £, Ω, Rokovoj Bereg, and Outer Inner Third Mindframe". Peace and Math be upon thee, heathens, for while Zarasthura has turned his back upon 6 as Numberwang...The Mongolia-Pequot have not! 6! Might! Be! Gnawrebmun! (or relative Ablative Absolute Inverse, as stated in the C-54 Greenland-Seaworld Convention as to the acceptance of Sub-Saharan Alaska as a Biological Morphotronic power)
@Mipotsmiplants I normally don't reply to such old posts, but I will in this case. The sense I got from this was that they were satirizing our American media's tendency to latch on to a popular show from abroad, and remake it, in the process either completely missing the point as to what made it popular and omiting it, or "dumbing it down" to the point of incomprehensibility.
Arsene Wenger almost signed Numberwang in 2006 but turned it down because he ."thought he was little bit wanganumb". I can only dream of what could have been.
@candyinthebottle Also, most American game shows deliberately ask less difficult questions in order to create the impression that the show is easy and that anyone who signs up to compete will be guaranteed to make some money. Then, of course, they pick a group of idiots as contestants, and the circle continues ad infinitum. It's the same logic that gives us reality television.
3:12 The number's that the boffin tests: 4, 8, 15, 162, 3420. Let's split these numbers up: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. And what do you get? The numbers from LOST!!
21 dislikes - that's 4.5 more than the number of likes which is only 1454, recurring no less! If only it was 6 or more sideways of what it is now, then it would be a Perfect Numberwang!
Fun fact, lost writers chosed 23 as one of the numbers because of 'The Mystery of 23', first appeared in the Illuminatus! Triology, and 42 because it was the answer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
It would be so good if there were actually some secret rules to Numberwang, but they are just so complicated that nobody will figure them out and it just sounds like nonsense.
I think this might be the best thing I've ever seen. I just sat there, aghast, on the sofa first time I saw it, amazed at the hilarity... and the artistry. I love Mitchell and Webb.
Is there some sort of 'thing' where chickens are hard for computers to recognise? There are now two instances I've seen of computer related individuals freezing at the sight of chickens and it seems too silly to be a coincidence, yet too far removed to be a reference.
The inexplicably sad announcement of the end of that series of Mitchell and Webb was to be replaced by The Apprentice: The Worst Decisions, and here we are today.
Turns out that Colosson's rise to power was actually "the event"...
Oh my God it all makes sense
No! Don't make me think about the event! The event is in the past!!!
fragglet That's a fan fic I'd like to see.
+fragglet Oh my god. And the gameshow broadcast is the place where numberwang and wordwang were filmed. It all makes sense now.
I'm praying for Closson to get rid of the Democrats after covid-19.
"I opened the door and said to him, quite simply, 'that's numberwang'. As I remember he cried." Is my favourite thing ever said.
To his good friend who happened to go to school with Hitler
I lost it at "tragically trying to de-gay himself with a laser" and it simply got better.
"In countries like Australia, such as New Zealand" always has me howling
The genius of making a whole running gag about a quiz-show surrounding nonsense maths... It kind of melts my brain.
Could that be numberwang? I have no idea.
If you add one pencil, minus a fork, find the square route of circle, your comment becomes numberwang. 🥰
This is made flesh all the runaway wack humor my highschool friends and I took too far, “but wouldn’t be awesome if all that happens and THEN there’s like a TV documentary about it and it just keeps getting worse and worse!!”... but someone ACTUALLY DID.
Yes, that is a number.
Typical Americans
6:02 "YEEESS! That is a number!" Absolutely brilliant.
6:02
Love how Julie is the only constant throughout the generations, hinting about her being immortal
That would mean that the episode in which she won... she cheated...
I've just seen the Imitation Game, but I'm glad than now I've finally seen the REAL story.
Evi1M4chine that’s why it didn’t work lol
To be fair the imitation game does make the massive mistake of not including any reference to Thomas Flowers.
I'm glad this was recommended to me twelve years later.
Truly a numberwang.
Computing numberwang isn't that difficult. I took a course in statistical morphology and it's proven to be of great use in calculating numberwang and even wangernumb (provided it's a non-dilute number). For instance, 8 is numberwang, but 8 isn't.
The famous thought experiment Schrodinger's Wang shows that the superposition of any number upon itself in quantum space may be simultaneously numberwang and not numberwang until someone claims that it is or it isn't, at which time it takes on one state or the other, but only from the observer's point of view.
@@usvalve Schrodinger's... Wang.... HAH _[&c.]!_
8 is Numberwang in base 10, but not in decimal.
Ever since this episode was first broadcast, my friends and I have kept a picture of a chicken as our phone screensavers. We are prepared.
"And it was here, in these halls, that the Luftwaffe was defeated..."
If there's anything I've learned from Numberwang, it's that 1 is the prime numberwang, 2 is deadly to humans, 3 is not a numberwang, and 4 is definitely numberwang regardless of the number or sequence of numbers preceding it.
I said to him, quite simply, "that's numberwang."
...and as I remember, he cried.
Poor Colosson. He just wanted things to be numberwang.
After the event, they were.
Numberwang Maximizer.
@@lordbuss that's numberwang
"Thit's numberwing!"
"Hahaha ol' mate that's numberwang!"
"Yes! That is a number!"
This skit is (IMO) the best that M&W ever put out. This was programme was one of the best comedy shows I've ever had the pleasure to watch.
What's hilarious about the Russell scene is that in his 'Principia Mathematica' (written with Alfred North Whitehead) he takes exactly 162 pages to conclusively prove that 1+1=2.
Terrance Howard ought to read that.
And Kurt Gödel killed it off with his Numberwan_ Incompleteness Theorem
He (Russell) also has a nice teapot orbiting the sun between the Earth and Mars.
Pissing myself.
162? That's numberwang!
and this is why I NEVER leave the house without a picture of a chicken!
"tragically trying to de-gay himself with a laser." Another epic quote from Mitchell.
"The Good Life is one inspired by love and guided by Numberwang" - Bertrand Russell
"Oh, its a tough one today"
"Yes, tricky"
"Thats numberwang"
"Oh damnit Reg always gets it first"
“Wangs for the memory” is what I google on my free time
The BBC2 announcer won an Oscar.
This whole thing reminds me of the game Mornington Crescent
One of the best running gags of the show!
The Bertrand Russell bit is genius. xD
Today Numberwang is a vast, global franchise like MacDonald's, U2 and the Catholic Churc all rolled into one.
The relativly humble beginings of not yet existing...classic stuff
Fantastic! And he pulled out a picture John Bird: love it! He's of Bremner, Bird and Fortune (a hilariously funny British comedy trio, for anyone who doesn't know, especially good at but not limited to satire). This was only series two but somehow they managed to convince the BBC to pay for so many extras, such elaborate sets, costumes and props! One of the best shows that was ever on television: I so wish Mitchell and Webb would get back together, they wrote these scripts themselves and they're bloody brilliant!
2 ducks and a different sort of bird, but no chicken. Very funny
@@davimurph That's Numberwang!
Every time I watch their sketches I pick up on some nuanced detail I never spotted before (or maybe not so nuanced but it all flies over my head at once at a million miles an hour!) I just realised watching it again after you replied that they all stand when Webb starts humming the national anthem: brilliant!
"Yes that is a number"...Roberts greatest line
This feels like an SCP.
SCP-033 is numberwang!
Everything is a SPC these days.
@@BNK2442 SCP and with enough creative writing, anything can be.
Ah SCPs. The male wattpad.
@@alexanderg1935 "No fun allowed, especially with popular stuff!"
"As i remember he cried."
So damn good.
"Thits nimbawing!"
Peter O'Donoghue YES! THAT IS A NUMBER! (big ass grin on my face)
+Peadar Bakunin Eulenspiegel Fuchsberger Thinks broo!
I always crack up at Webb's "Ahhh... Hello, hello..." at 4:03
All those stupid, repetitive Numberwang sketches..... they were all leading up to this. So worth it. I'm crying with laughter.
You'd think David Frost would've noticed Collosson there while he was trying to copulate with 11
Avengers: Age of Ultron totally rips this off.
We now know that millions of people contemplating the complex mathematics of numberwang brought humanity to the attention beings from non-Euclidian dimensions, causing The Event.
YES!!! That is a number
"I say chaps, you don't suppose we could use this machine for anything else do you?"
"Like what?"
" I dunno erm, eh something to help with the war or something..."
"I'll just go check...NOOO! NUMBERWANG WAS DESIGNED TO HELP MANKIND NOT TO DESTROY!!"
Perhaps if it had a Death ray...
i remember my first Numberwang. I was eleven, my numbers were 12, 34.4, and 70. Good memories
I love his grammatically correct use of like and as.
4:02 Ahhhhh hello hello....kills me every time
lol, I love the way the US version totally messes up the format and misses the point. Just like so many US reworkings of UK shows.
I took the joke as “look, the folks in the US are so dumb, that their version of the show is “name a number””
It's also wang being a sexual reference and the prudish Americans wouldn't have it on TV. I think it works on several levels.
@@thatdomguy2857 I took it more like how America renamed Cluedo to just Clue.
Yeah, it's Americans not understanding how something works and wrecking it. Like they did with, "The Office" and with democracy...
@@tommiatkins3443 right, it's not like our versions of those things saw any success after all
I had long wondered how this amazing discovery was made.
a machine that gets a number, prints out if it's numberwang or not, and no one knows how it works...so basically that the first machine learning algorithm
People here are idiots. 6 is never numberwang unless 7 and 88 + 6 are simultaneously numberwang except if 4 was wangernumbed in later 15 pt bonus, however it is also numberwang when 6 and 65 are equal in bonus, unless the host announced the bonus before numberwang is called on 44 and 6 (or 23) but not 16. It's perfectly clear.
That only works with American rules. I prefer the UK version where 6 is numberwang when you take the square root of the previous numberwang, times it by 83.4, subtract one fifth and then times it by wangernumb. Much more versatile that way.
myth1032 I'm Canadian, so we play by Mussolini's Italy rules (Canada's numberwang is 1943.65). Here 6 and 7 are both numberwang, but not at the same time unless sqrt 9 is equal to twentibly. Naturally this only applies if 99 is a wangernumb, but that's most of the time since we usually tie 50 to 8.
myth1032 I think it's more Australian rules, American rules states that 6 is never a numberwang unless it's combined with 66 and add 111. But then, you must divide by pi/2 or 4, depending on the round,and multiply by 8 to get numberwang. But be careful, if you multiply by .8, 18 or 80, then you would be wangernumbed. (Which, fun facts, are the total opposite the Kim's North Korean, Hitler's German and Stalin's Russian rules)
We play by san quentin rules.so 6 is always numberwang if you subtract .5 and then sodomize the new inmate in the shower.
Fools. Do you not know that Sub-Universal Standard Numberwang is the combination of Euclid-Vanzetti 5th Quadrant Zetarithm Type Numbers, when the logistic anti-points of Divine Metaphysics, by Japrussian-Netherlandian Secular Monk Barmetto Golinthian, and NOT with the Fork System of Paramilitary Metric Third Volume conversions. That is Democratic Eastern Orthodox Cuba's Numberwang binary rotation system, and in this day and age that Numberwang will simply not do. In conclusion, both 6 and 7 are Numberwang, but automatically Numberwang has Wangerinfinitariumed itself, following The G=6.67 10^-11 Sociopolitical Parameters of 6 (RIP 2996-Event Horizon). The nature of 6 itself is a walking Trunkarithmic contradiction, thus it both is, is not, and exists Adjacent inward to the curvature of Marx-Relpek Space, within coordinates "32, 25, 1(;, j, £, Ω, Rokovoj Bereg, and Outer Inner Third Mindframe". Peace and Math be upon thee, heathens, for while Zarasthura has turned his back upon 6 as Numberwang...The Mongolia-Pequot have not! 6! Might! Be! Gnawrebmun! (or relative Ablative Absolute Inverse, as stated in the C-54 Greenland-Seaworld Convention as to the acceptance of Sub-Saharan Alaska as a Biological Morphotronic power)
@Mipotsmiplants I normally don't reply to such old posts, but I will in this case.
The sense I got from this was that they were satirizing our American media's tendency to latch on to a popular show from abroad, and remake it, in the process either completely missing the point as to what made it popular and omiting it, or "dumbing it down" to the point of incomprehensibility.
I don't think I'll ever be able to look at a number the same again. Numberwang.
There's something very nostalgic about the BBC Two intro
Um...oh it's my turn? Uh...Mornington Crescent? No, no! Aldgate! I meant Aldgate!
any lost fans?
the sequence of numbers he says
4-8-15-162-3420
4-8-15-16-23-42
"five hundred four thousand beef hundred and ninetington shinx divultiplied by the tesserect root of omegen?"
...
"THAT'S NUMBERWANG!"
Arsene Wenger almost signed Numberwang in 2006 but turned it down because he ."thought he was little bit wanganumb".
I can only dream of what could have been.
Best sketch of Mitchell and Webb ever!
where he sat tragically trying to de-gay himself with a lazer. :P
At 3:10 I was almost astonished when they started the Lost numbers!
Wracking my brain trying to think of another fish number besides eel-even
"yeees! that is a numberrr!" hahahahahahahaha genius
brilliant show, its really my kind of humor
It is a number! lol.
Showing this to someone half way through learning English would be fun.
This show deserves another season.
"Ahhh, would that it were, would that. it. were."
@candyinthebottle Also, most American game shows deliberately ask less difficult questions in order to create the impression that the show is easy and that anyone who signs up to compete will be guaranteed to make some money. Then, of course, they pick a group of idiots as contestants, and the circle continues ad infinitum. It's the same logic that gives us reality television.
I love how when the show is in America, it has to be different.
It's because of our poor educational quality..we really don't even know what a numberwang is..we mainly watch it for the board rotation
"that is a number"
hahahaha
I wonder if the BBC still has the colosson prop.
Prop?
"In countries like Australia; such as New Zealand."
This is an alternate universe where Monte Carlo methods are simply numberwang methods and numberwang is the name of the rng generator they use.
Numberwang is my most favourite telly show!
If only we could combine Numberwang with Mornington Crescent.
3:12
The number's that the boffin tests: 4, 8, 15, 162, 3420. Let's split these numbers up: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42. And what do you get? The numbers from LOST!!
21 dislikes - that's 4.5 more than the number of likes which is only 1454, recurring no less! If only it was 6 or more sideways of what it is now, then it would be a Perfect Numberwang!
The numbers the WWII scientist reads off are the numbers from LOST.
I very nearly achieved numberwang by accident while trying to swim the Bristol Channel in 1990. I am still forbidden by law to discuss how.
love the fact that the lost numbers are numberwang.
(lost numbers - 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42
numberwang - 4, 8, 15, 162, 3420.)
Fun fact, lost writers chosed 23 as one of the numbers because of 'The Mystery of 23', first appeared in the Illuminatus! Triology, and 42 because it was the answer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Particularly, I venerate the number 423.
Octavio Bannach I knew when I made that comment 11 years ago someone would eventually reply
You're absolutely right.
No one does, it's never really explained. That's one of the funniest aspects of the Numberwang sketches, the apparently arbitrary nature of the game.
It would be so good if there were actually some secret rules to Numberwang, but they are just so complicated that nobody will figure them out and it just sounds like nonsense.
I laughed so hard I almost cried.
That's Numberwang!
I opened the door, and said to him, quite simply...
That's Numberwang.
As I remember he cried.
I think this might be the best thing I've ever seen. I just sat there, aghast, on the sofa first time I saw it, amazed at the hilarity... and the artistry.
I love Mitchell and Webb.
Holy crap this is funny.
"Thet's nambaweng"
Happy Birthday Turing!
"Yeeeess, that is a number!"
Good point, looks like it is!
lmfao "Ah, would that it were numberwang. Alas, it is not!"
They stand up for him humming the national anthem!
Does anyone else find the “Numberwang Night” BBC Two ident bit at the start hilarious?!
This could be made into a brilliant Doctor Who episode.
Is there some sort of 'thing' where chickens are hard for computers to recognise? There are now two instances I've seen of computer related individuals freezing at the sight of chickens and it seems too silly to be a coincidence, yet too far removed to be a reference.
Damn man....well spotted!
Damn I've spent a morning trying to prove to myself that I existed......still not convinced
@Evi1M4chine
I'm pretty sure that's not Numberwang.
@@pazma1 But the OP was numberwang. I don't know how no one noted it yet.
YEAH DUDE!!! I flipped out when I heard that!
The inexplicably sad announcement of the end of that series of Mitchell and Webb was to be replaced by The Apprentice: The Worst Decisions, and here we are today.
I love history!
And that’s numberwang!
One of the few British shows American TV did not rip off. Their loss.