Remember if you forget your roll when camping in winter you can just cut down some bracken and fir branches, or end up like the Dialov group....or you can be an adult and no longer do it 😁
I have RLS but I also do what you do....the foot tapping. I have noticed the slight shake in your mic. I do it because I think I'm constantly wired and while my brains pre-occupied watching RUclips, I need to do something with my hands or feet, i.e, tapping. At bed time, my body is knackered but my brains going 100mph!
The tangents are brilliant. As a single parent with not many friends, it's videos like Simon's that make folding the mountains of washing on my own that much easier and less lonely lol
I don't have any form of ADHD/ADD... But, I'm not going to lie here, this is pretty much how I retell every story... Aww, sh,**, this is just how I TALK, period?! ...God, no wonder I'm such an ASS & people hate me so much. Note that I am most definitely including "myself" there when I use the word "people."
Anyone remember that dark, dark time when Simon forced Danny to stop making introductions and a lot of us in the comments section were like "Well it's a bit shit now isn't it." And then steadily over time the introductions returned. Skipping Introductions written by talented writers is detrimental to productivity, don't do that.
@@ThatWriterKevin At this point the channel should probably be renamed Brain Tangent (or Tangent Blaze...) as they generally make up at least half, often more, of every episode lol
@@burtdurger847 great, give Simon another channel to do! But I ditto blaze tangent. I love the tangents and stories, I don't understand disliking the intros, I love the intros, they're always so...... Full of story telling and random facts and different cultures. Love that. Love hearing about where the writers are from and their backgrounds. Love hearing Simons stories. Curious about the editors stories
Simon needs his own ads. "Have you been diagnosed with smooth brain? Take a few hours of Whistlerverse content a day and you will be right as rain. Ask your doctor if Whistler is right for you."
As a city boy in America I absolutely LOVE when I go to the extremely small town my father grew up in and strangers smile and wave to each other for no other reason but to be friendly conversations rarely start up.
"Livin the dream" is my favorite response to receive. My retort back is, "nightmares are dreams too" and most have no idea how to respond to that... and that brings me much joy.
The greeting thing is VERY dependent on location. You try that in cities like Chicago, L.A., New York, etc. and you will be lucky to not get in a fist fight. More rural areas it is pretty common, something I have heard is reasonably common world wide. The more crowded an area is, the more you are expected to keep to your self. The more open and spacious an area is, the more likely people will regularly greet each other even when they have never met before. To a certain extent it may be a cultural defense mechanism: If you are passing 500 people per minute while walking, it becomes VERY difficult to greet each other and people start trying to pull back to protect personal space. When you see one person every couple of minutes walking down the other side of the road, it is a lot simpler to nod and say hello to each person without feeling like the world is being forced upon you.
Had a friend move from KC to a podunk nowhere town in Eastern Colorado, she was confused as heck when her husband would just wave to random people he didn't know. I'd grown up there, so I just found it normal. Didn't know it was such odd behavior.
This is the same across the world, the more crowded a place is, the less likely people are to want to engage, usually because it would be tiring to do so, with so many people but also because there are far more crazy or desperate people in cities and one of the signs of their presence is interacting with strangers. So in rural or smaller cities we'll be far more likely to greet people or even stop for a brief conversation with a stranger because we have less fear and usually more time for it. It is only natural.
Between the topics and tangents I have probably forgotten what half of the topics were. That's why this channel is fun, keep up the good work and don't cut the intros short!
As a former nurse (disabled by MS), Id tell patients to see a doctor if its something that interferes with sleep or disrupts daily life. Restless Leg syndrome is a real thing and can cause you to lose sleep. It can cause a range of other problems as well. Some patients may have anxiety when it comes to bedtime and other may develop insomnia. Never feel like youre wasting a doctors time. Talk to them about your concerns and discuss different ways to help live your best life. Another thing I tell friends and family is to get your annual check up. Its super important in keeping you healthy and informed. I can't stress that enough.
As to brutally mismatched teams, Simon have you ever done a video related to our Canadian pastime of ice hockey? I remember at the Italian winter Olympics (because Italy is a wintery nation?), normally Italy wouldn't qualify to post a team to ice hockey in the Olympics, but as the host country, this was waived. The Italian women's team (I'm surprised they found enough people in Italy who even know what hockey is) drew the worst-case scenario for their first match. Canada. The Canadian women beat them 36-0 in that game. To put this in perspective, a normal hockey match at the international level is usually decided by a one goal margin, like 1-0 or 2-1 or something...
6:00 - Chapter 1 - Greek life 14:15 - Chapter 2 - College sports 16:35 - Mid roll ads 18:40 - Back to chapter 2 26:55 - Chapter 3 - Ask your doctor about 35:35 - Chapter 4 - How it's going ?
I went to visit Italy while my partner worked there on scholarship as apart of a study abroad program. She spoke some Italian, I spoke none. Her advice to me was don't talk to anyone unprovoked, or just mumble "excusa" when getting around. You'll blend right in. Act like you belong and the language barrier pretty much goes away. Which is such a difference from walking around the United States where someone could just completely unprovoked start a conversation with me when I don't know them or care to know them.
Yup. We're pretty friendly in most parts of the country. We wave at each other, wave pedestrians across the street even if we don't have a stop sign, and they don't have a cross wave. We wave thanks when someone lets us move into the only traffic lane when the road narrows. Yup. We're friendly. And, Simon. Doctors don't prescribe drugs. The rep comes in, sells the new drug to the nurse, she tells the busy doctor, then the patient comes in after being bombarded with print, radio, and tv/RUclips ads about this great drug, and don't the people taking it look radiant and youthful
@@sophuzzy well, I guess I live in a shit part of the country. Every time I leave my house, I'm accosted by junkies begging me for money and cigarettes. Sometimes in my own goddamned hallway...
@@alexschneider8494 There's a difference between friendly and intrusive. Helping people that need help is friendly. Exchanging a few words in the check out line or thanking your cashier for the service is friendly. Easing off the gas when you're driving so someone can switch lanes easier is friendly. Chatting someone up for 30 minutes that are just trying to get home to their family and doesn't give a damn about you is not really that friendly. You're just holding them ransom to politeness and the crazy thing is you do this even when you don't want to have the chat either. Why is this not weird to you?
There's something oddly soothing about story time with Simon ( Yes I mean the tangents ) it's nice to sit back and just go wherever the current stream of consciousness takes him .I wonder how American tourists in the Uk feel when the most enthusiastic response they are likely to get to "How You doing?" is likely to be "Yeah ,not too bad " or "Could be worse " .
"How you doing" nor "How are you" isn't said over here in the UK. They all say "You alright?" Or in the Republic of Ireland it's "Are You Okay?" To which the correct response would be "Ya You?" and if you're not used to it you could end up going through this over n over. As an American living here for over a decade I still can't do this feeling natural. When I first started hearing that I kept wanting to ask everyone, "Why, what have ya heard" or "Yeah, why?" They are a silly bunch.
Ngl we here in the US do very similar stuff, now most of us are very stupid so I can't speak for everyone, but I think there's a few of us who would understand quite quickly
I feel like if I were visiting the US, and be asked that same thing as a form of polite greeting all day... I'd start answering with something in the lines of "Tired of strangers asking me weird shit all the time"
Heh, in my high school, football was _huge._ I was in marching band, so I was at every game. Our school, and most schools in the area, had proper stadiums, and while not _every_ game filled our stadium up, playoff games always did, as did Homecoming games. Even more impressive was when the visiting team would fill the other side of the stadium, which, granted, was smaller than the Home side, but still impressive considering they had to drive up to an hour to get there. All in all, I'd say it wasn't at all uncommon to have about a thousand people there, sometimes more, and yes, some games were televised locally.
Honestly Simon I love listening to your tangents. While I love the actual content of the video, the tangents give the videos their flavor and that's what keeps me around.
Danny needs to write a script for Simon explaining the popularity of school sports in Texas and other southern states. And the competitions between school drum corps and cheerleader groups is just as fierce and have been popularized in several major Hollywood films.
Ah, yeah, it's easy to forget but Cheerleading is just as competitive as actually playing the sport, it just isn't in the public eye as much. It's sort of like the modeling industry. There's so much weird stuff in the modeling industry that no one is talking about. I remember Tyra Banks was doing a casual interview talking about modeling and I was like "K, that's kinda weird," when I heard it at first, then a few hours later I was like "Wait, what? That's actually really messed up."
I live in Brooklyn, NYC and have lived here all my life. You don't interact with another person unless you personally know them. Greeting dogs is generally acceptable but another person is straight up weird. Visiting my grandparents in rural Texas was always really weird because EVERYONE says hello to each other. Don't matter if you know them or not. Walking through the grocery store is like a nightmare for an introvert such as myself. It was like everytime we got done with Howdy's to one person it was time to do it with a new person. Even just walking down the road people slow their damned cars down to say Howdy. It's fricking weird.
I live near DC. I don’t generally greet random people on the street, but I will sometimes strike up a conversation with people in the elevator or something. If you can’t deal with that, you’re not an introvert. You’re a person who doesn’t really know how to socialize.
@@michaelimbesi2314 I'd say it's both. Humans are exhausting. I do well enough with internet interactions but generally hate face-to-face ones. I especially hate huggers and people who seek physical contact when talking. I enjoy spending time with one or two people I am close to but I don't invite people into my apartment ever. I also need to actually have a plan or activity to deal with people. Spontaneous interactions are terrible.
My in-laws have been going to Washburn Rural High School (Topeka, KS) competitions since 1994, when my husband started school there. In gratitude, the school gave them free lifetime passes to all home competitions in ANY sport!
Indiana native here. Tri-Kappa (a philanthropic sorority) is considered to have a funny name because it shares its abbreviation with another less-charitable organization. Tune in next time for another thrilling episode of "Yet Even More Things Americans Find Unfortunate That Simon Finds Totally Incomprehensible"!
There are 68 teams in March Madness because in the teams are broken into 4 brackets (16 teams each) with each bracket representing the South, East, West and Midwest. The teams are ranked 1 through 16 with an additional 4 games (1 game each) being played at the start of the tournament for one of the ranked positions called the First Four. The First Four games consist of games between the 2 lowest ranked teams (#65 vs #66 and #67 vs #68) and the 2 lowest "at large" ranked teams. Thus 64 (teams in tournament)+ 4(teams eliminated in First Four games)= 68. Also I don't know how they determine which rank has to have 2 teams battle for the spot. TLDR: 8 teams play for 4 spots. 64+4=68
Fun Fact with collegiate sports in America, many colleges and universities make so much money from football that it enables them to have other sports. Football literally supports all of the other sports because it's the only sport that actually makes those schools money.
I don't think anyone should make money from sports, the fact that athletes often make more than actually useful professions like teacher, librarians, janitors literally any non entertainment profession is a heinous injustice, the best paid people should be the ones who actually contribute to the advancement of the human race, so no arts or entertainment or athletes or ceos it should be those in STEM making millions of dollars followed by educators, production workers, government employees, then service industry workers
@agneslawson9276 is that because your swim team isn't good enough? Not a jab I know nothing about any college sports team but it seems logical that if they won a lot they'd be funding something else rather than being funded
@@omgandwtf1 The swim team is newer. The hockey team was founded a few years after the college was founded, almost a century ago whereas the swim team is still under 2 decades old, though they've gotten some titles, because there are fewer people on the team, once they graduate there are fewer to support the team. With hockey the whole team is bigger, obviously, so training across years is smoother so the team is more consistently ranking. The difficulty with the cost is because of heating a pool in Alaska though shockingly those are our biggest sports.
Having chronic insomnia and horrible RLS. its soooooo painful. Its so hard to live with especially when sleep is already such a nightmare struggle (yes shaking all the time is 100% RLS). I feel ya Simon, Shake those legs with me for life, its the only way to not go crazy lol. On the topic of Smiling and talking to strangers, while the 20-30 min conversation is SO unneeded and absolutely happens all the time. I LOVE people, I truly do, If i can do anything to make a stranger feel better in 5 seconds i'll do it. I smile at people because I'm generally happy to see a face I dont know. HOWEVER, ever since I was a little kid, i despised the fake responses of others, and the surface bull. I always answer honestly, if my day is horrible and it sucks, even if im at work. I'll say you know what, I wont lie to you so, it really sucks and i'm having a really rough day. I always follow it up with "I'm MORE than happy to stop working tho to go help you" because I would generally prefer that 5 min of helping someone and maybe learning something random about a Stranger and making them smile. I really should be ready not to do this outside of the US I think haha.
Also, Simon, most people start college at 18. Some started grade school early or graduated early so they're a bit ahead. Some take a break so are a bit later in starting college. The legal drinking age is 21, so yeah, lots of time to totally not being drinking at parties.
More specifically I'd say most people start college in the calendar year of their 18th birthday, but latter-third of the year babies will still be 17 when they actually start.
@@Jessepigman69 What's Jack in England? The 14 year olds at parks in the Midlands are necking bottles of cheap Cider. They all need ASBOs too. Little bastards they are.
@@JennaGetsCreative not in the US, as school entrance cuts off typically around august, so if you were born after that, you will enter school the next year
There are quite a lot of fraternities and some sororities in Germany. And they are different than what you see in the US. They started a couple of centuries ago, when students had to travel around the country to study at different universities from different professors, much like carpenters and masons were (and still are) travelling to different masters to learn different techniques in their crafts. At that time, most people did not travel around. Most would rarely leave their home village, sometimes going to the market the next town over or *gasp* peddling their goods at a city 50km away. Going hundreds of km from north to south or east to west meant leaving your comfort zone, meeting people with different dialects or even speaking a different language. When you arrive somewhere, you had nothing in common with those folk. So students were quite happy to meet others from a round the same area they were from. They started the first "fraternities" called "Landsmannschaften", compiled of students from the same region. Those later developed into a more diverse jumble of groups like "Corps" (made up from or forming a military unit), "Burschenschaften" (quite a broad term, often used for all student clubs nowadays), "Turnerschaften" (frats with a focus on sports), "Sängerschaften" (frats with a focus on music) and other student clubs (e.g. with catholic background or just providing less expensive housing to students and having some fun drinking). In the early days, as women were not allowed to go to university, those were traditionally only made up by males. Some later developed to incorporate women, too. Most are still male-only, basing this on their tradition, while some female-only student societies came up over the years. But as most women consider this kind of society rather stupid (guys hanging out with guys, drinking themselves blind, singing a lot of old songs, dressing up in formal gear, fencing with sharp weapons (albeit, a lot of padding), drinking some more, vomiting all over, having drinking competitions with other fraternities, consecutively barfing more...you get the picture). Sororities are doing the same stuff as their male counterparts, often exchanging the beer for sparkling or diluted wine and being at least a bit less obnoxious (AFAIK...maybe correct me on this ;-)). To sum it all up: On the plus site, you get a) cheaper housing, b) instantly have a community you are a part of, c) usually get some amenities like a nice house, a library, a community kitchen, internet, parties, etc., d) to be part of an old tradition, e) get to meet the older members that often are now successful lawyers, professors or businessmen and can offer you a leg-up in your career when you are done with uni, f) a lot of drinking (if you consider this a plus). On the minus side of things, you enter into a rather stiff and formal society ruled by old (and often outdated) views. Most members are studying law, finance or medicine, which screams conservative loudly. And some go more to the right and end up being right-out fascist in their views. This is why most are considered a target by the more left-leaning students. Sometimes rightly so, sometimes not. Those fraternities govern themselves and will have weekly or monthly meetings to determine party planning, excursions and official meetings with the senior members (aka those that shell out the money to make all that possible). You are held to some standards and will be expelled or sanctioned for bad things you did. If you are drinking too much and people are starting to worry about it, you can be cut off from alcohol on the house or other frat houses. If you behave in a way unbecoming of the frat, you have to apologize to the offended party and may get to work it off. You are expected to present your fraternity with dignity to the public and follow the rules as a member. As you might expect from Germans, drinking yourself silly just like that is not to be expected. Even drinking follows strict rules. It often is made into a competition of who can drink faster (one-on-one challenge) or who can drink more and faster (often a group challenge). Sometimes with added difficulties like drinking upside-down, on one leg, without shoes in the snow, etc. This is usually done in formal wear or at least with some decorum. What you do not see (as far as I can tell) is half-naked drunk people with a tie as a bandana chugging bear from a keg. Older members will cut in at some level and make sure this reputation damaging conduct will not happen (but it probably will happen despite that). That said, yes, I am a member of a fraternity and chose it firstly for the inexpensive room, but stayed for the good company. The rules are a bit stiff, but so are family dinners^^ I was very happy to discover that not all frats are racist dens, as I lean quite a bit to the left. I did not drink, which made me a very good observer of others overdoing it and stepping in when needed. You may be surprised to hear this, but there is an old rule book from 1899 "Allgemeiner Deutscher Bier Comment" (Universal German Beer Rules) in which is discussed that other drinks are also possible for those rituals, including water. Since most people nowadays know that alcoholism and drunk driving are bad stuff, fraternities accept it, when you do not drink beer, but use any other drink for those challenges instead. If this kind of society is something you may like, you should check them out. At least in Germany, most traditional university cities (like Jena, Bonn, Tübingen, etc.) have a lot of different fraternities. Special information for Simon: Prague founded the first university in Europe in 1348 and was a long time part of the Holy Roman Empire an part of Germany. A lot of different fraternities were located in Prague, yet most of them did not survive the world wars (the N@zis got rid of a lot of them, because they were conservative, but would not go all the way to genocide). There is one catholic fraternity (KStV Pragensis) today.
When you were saying, "Sporty, sporty, sport, sports." I really felt that in my heart. We like hockey and baseball, but otherwise, we are not a sports family. I have three sons and they are all musically and artistically inclined. We call all sports, "Sport Ball."
I love hockey and basketball, partner does not, and he always says something like "Oh yeah, so-and-so (basketball player) scored a hat trick in the tennis game last night and won" just to piss me off (just makes me roll my eyes, tbh), so I'm gonna start mixing up boxing and UFC fighters/terms just to piss him off!
Where I live my high school football games had 2 student sections. 1 was for high school students. The other one was for middle school students. They often yell chants during the game to cheer on their team, sometimes even throwing shade at the other team. There is also a section for the high school marching band. They play the fight song every time their team scores. The rest of the stands were for parents and other people that bought tickets to the game. I want to say they would have about 4,000 people at any given home game. Our volleyball and basketball teams also had enough people going to games to have a student section. Sports are just really big in the US.
It is absolutely the way of the world in America that we enthusiastically greet each other, even if we're total strangers. It's seen as strange not to. In rural areas, it even extends to people driving on the road or past someone's house. If you're outside, you wave at the person driving by, and they wave back.
People actually think you are rude if you are in the climax of your book, but won't pause to say hello. We are not friends Susan, I just want this Dr. Pepper and some beef jerky. They are about to announce the killer, say hello to yourself.
Just watched the Axeman Of New Orleans Casual Criminalist episode and Kevin's slight jab at Simon about long introductions in the intro of that episode hit harder after seeing this. My sides hurt laughing
Hahaha “living the dream!”! I say that hundreds of times a day… so much that I have shortened it to “dreamy”. And you hit the nail on the head… that is exactly what it means when I say it. So funny!
I love how he admitted that he’s from the UK when he was talking about nepotism and corruption in the US. I was going to have a problem if he didn’t. I would’ve been like, “Hey Fact boi, you’re English and my country inherited a few things from yours.”
I went to university in Brisbane (Australia) in 2000 and we didn’t have fraternities, but we had “societies”. They’d roam around campus trying to recruit people to join; which involved a membership fee, and they’d have their group parties and what not, some had t-shirts and other merch, but they weren’t anywhere near as exclusive or competitive as American fraternities. Every year a couple of the engineering societies (we had more than one per university; and several universities in Brisbane) would organise a pub crawl, and all were welcome. It was a great time.
In Germany we actually do have a very old culture of fraternities. Some of them are still very oldscool with specific names and colours, only allowing males, crazy hazing rituals and fencing with sharp swords... There also exist more modern ones which allow females, but a lot less
Dunno how it’s over the border but here in austria if someone brings up a fraternity most people assume it has something to do with politically *extremely* right leaning people
I can picture it now. A bunch of Simons playing high-school sports. Two teams of 14-year-olds with bald heads and bushy beards, absolutely not caring about the sport that they're supposed to be playing. It would be epic.
The main reason fraternities were tolerated in my college days was because they threw awesome parties, but other than that they were clowned on by pretty much everyone else
Simon there are two varsity matches that are normally televised, the big one, that’s the annual Oxford Cambridge boat race. Which is on the river Thames between Putney and Mortlake. And the smaller one, the Annual Varsity Rugby match, played at the home of English rugby, Twickenham, again between Oxford and Cambridge. It is said that best not to require the services of a medical consultant on the day of the match, as chances are they will be at the game 😊
The joke about the tri kappa fraternity is that it's full name is Kappa Kappa Kappa, the Greek letter K. Organizations whose names are composed mainly of three K's are quite problematic in the US. The Tri Kappa fraternity changed one of the characters so that there's only two K's in the name now. Edit: Also, my dad says that shaking your legs means that you're going to be poor. My Grandma said that shaking your leg shows that you have no manners. I still shake my legs when I sit, which is probably why I'm both poor and act like a slob. Edit2: Make eye contact in NYC, and get ready to throw down. I once accidentally made eye contact with a granny on the R one morning. Granny started screaming at me to "mind you're own f***ing business!" Then I went to college in MA and was freaked out when people made eye contact, smiled and said hello. Thought I was going to be mugged or something.
The NYC suburbanites also hate eye contact. But rural New Yorkers act more like New Englanders, especially in the northern border section where they’re closer to Vermont or Canada than they are to Albany or Syracuse.
Brain Blaze without at least one tangent would be boring. I love the channel for the well written scripts and Simon's tangents. Oh and Sam's memes. Can't forget those
7:26 Germany does have them, some of them (not all) even have some pretty racist rules as they only allow people of a certain christian domination that can prove they're like 3 generation German and most only allow males. There are some female and mixed gender ones but those are rare. They also have houses for members to live in, those are way cheaper than normal flats in the surrounding City and also come with a life long obligation to help out in the future once you've made it. No clue about the hazing but some have induction rituals, mostly fencing where they also have their own circuits.
Oh my god, that “how’re you doing?” Response translations is scarily accurate and never realized it… At work everyone asks us how we’re doing and the default answer is “fantastic” or “living the dream”… and we all hate our existence lol
I never knew just how bad RLS could get until I tried to find some info on how to reduce it... And came across an interview with a lady that almost offed herself because it was so bad it felt like her legs were ripping themselves apart every night... For most (like myself, and I PRESUME Simon) it is just a horribly uncomfortable sensation that starts out mild, but gets stronger the longer you ignore it much like many bug bites/rashes. The difference is you get relief by moving your legs instead of scratching the itch. I have heard several descriptions for the sensation, many varying WILDLY from what I get, but for me it feels like a combination of the sensation you get when you hit your funny bone (for those not familiar with the term, it is a nerve cluster in your elbow that is not very well protected, and is REALLY uncomfortable when something hits it,) and something crawling under your skin. And those sensations just keep getting stronger until you move.
Congrats Simon, you beat the record, 14 minutes and 17 seconds before i figured out what the bloody hell you were talking about.......LOVE IT!!!!! Tiny brain i guess i am....lol
I am a southern talker, I know others sometimes don't like it, but. I do have to say after 20 min of talking I would think we are starting a friendship.
People, to me, don't qualify as more than acquaintances until at least a year of consistent, willing interaction. Then again I generally don't remember to ask people's names until several months into knowing them so I'm an outlier here.
@@kreiner1 i figured it was cultural tbh. My paternal gran was like that. I also find Southerners generally overwhelming, like sensory overload. I think i just have several issues lol.
@@antidotebrain69 you are good the way you are! If we are overwhelming you tell us to stop ✋️, you have every right to be comfortable. My son really does not to be touched very much, I always ask for hugs instead of just hugging as I do with my other kids. After being around other people a lot he needs, really needs time alone. If I see someone pushing it with him I will step in a let him make a break for it lol. There is nothing wrong with you, not everyone wants to be smothered with a random person walking up acting like they've known you all your life. As far as real, real friends, I have had 3 in my 50 years, husband not included, and I think I am a really lucky woman to have had that many.
You tell stories like the guy that worked for me, Alex. Great guy! Hard worker, very smart.... Would start a story in the middle and work his way to both ends.... Drove me out of what little mind I once had....
Simon: "But we are six minutes in".... Literally 4 minutes of that wasn't part of the script! 🤣 Simon: "why are you still here, I'm just going off on tangents" Also Simon: Heads off on another tangent immediately, then another!
Australians say "How you going?" which always sounds weird to me, since North Amricans say "How're you doing?" or "How's it going?", but it's never been *confusing*. It's a normal greeting.
At least per Mayo clinic, Simon is mostly right, it's an uncontrollable urge to move the legs for varied reasons usually an extremely unpleasant feeling that can also vary and be hard to describe or define. It's typically most common at night or when sitting/laying down and trying to rest.
Simon; Those of us who giveyou the full watch time of a video want to hear both long intros and the tangents (even if Sam doesn't!!!), it's far, far better than the shite on the telly, so, long vids of waffle are best... :P
Another common answer to "How are you?" is "I'm making it". I adopted it because my answer was always an exhausted "same," or "I hear ya". And that's how everyone answers me as well, so it just feels the most honest. 😂
Today's top headline: Florida woman (really, Florida? Again?) suing because she says Velveeta shells and cheese cup prep time is deceptive. We've normalized stupid lawsuits. Plus: Yes, Simon, there is a difference between restless leg syndrome and the inability to sit still. 😁
@@2lefThumbs The time my roommate reads the label "cheese food spread". It's not an afghan for your cheese food, it's not food you feed a cheese, is it cheese or even food? Love Lehto's law.
In a lot of US universities, on-campus dorms (residence halls) don't include food. At mine, meal plans were a seperate fee. Well worth the $100-200 per semester, but still!
Instead of going on tangents during the episodes, Simon should just compile a list of all the tangents he wants to go on from several episodes and make a new channel just called "Tangents" where he just posts 10 to 20 minute videos of him ranting about random things.
But the tangents come up from random bits of script. Like, you think these are planned?? He could cut them all out and stick them in a different video but there would be no context.
Why not just leave em in so the video is longer (more watchtime) and then cut all the best tangents out and make a 10-20 min video of tangent comps to monetize the tangents a second time lol
My cousin loves that his son is also a fan of rugby, so he can drive him everytime he has a match to play and drink until he passes out on the hotel room with other dads, while the kids play videogames until late at night. I can understand that tbh.
I enjoyed the school football tangent. I am also British and of a similar age to you, so I also remember the boredom of sitting on a freezing bench on a Friday (my school district was obviously just a little bit nicer to us than yours 😂) talking to an equally bored me from another school both wishing we were pretty much anywhere else. They didn't even let you go home if you faked being ill. They benched you. Dick's.
15:00 many of those athletes get a free ride that would otherwise be unavailable. So basically we just pay to watch poor people's children play dangerous games.
College sports are nuts. I'll never understand why someone would choose to be a super rabid fan of a college football team when they never attended that college, never had a son or daughter or relative that went to that college, and probably couldn't even get into that college. I know a few people from the American south who take days off from work to attend SEC football games (not soccer - I mean the *real* football). Some even go to high school football games at high schools they have no connection to. They seem like decent and smart people otherwise.
Real? 🤣 Less than 10% compared to 'soccer' globally. We do have rabid supporters of teams from cities they have never even visited ... so agree with you there.
Simon saying that Czech people don’t talk to you on the street is odd for me because the only place I had someone have a conversation with me out of nowhere was in Prague. I’m used to it here in the southern US but it probably would’ve helped if I spoke Czech.
My wife and I were on a road trip once, and we stopped in a little gas station convenience store for snacks. The checkout lady thought it was really important to point out their high school football star to us as we were paying for our chips. We’re from New York/New Jersey, don’t watch sports, and we were in the south when this happened so we even thought it was a little weird.
Simon: I'm sorry Kevin but we need more time for my stories! I'm the boss. Me: I am here for Kevin and Danny's stories. Why can they go on epic stories in Decoding the Unknown but not on Brain Blaze, the channel that started it?
Restless Leg Syndrome can actually be pretty violent. I know a couple who sleep in separate beds because the guy kept leaving bruises all over his wife if they attempted to sleep in the same bed.
Simon, in the US you need an undergrad degree to go to med school and in the UK you don't, that's why your med school is 6 years and ours is 4. We also have a longer residency period after med school.
Between simon in the beginning and sam's top tier memes throughout this has had me cracking up harder than any other video from the various channels of the whistlerverse
Whistler's Weekly Whatevers or something like that, totally! Maybe with a big old hat of prompts given by the writers, pulled out of news headlines or his own old videos (as the Fact Boi, allegedly, doesn't remember any of them)
![Kodak Black - Catch Fire [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/A4ch-olIuZo/mqdefault.jpg)
Check out Squarespace: squarespace.com/blaze for 10% off on your first purchase.
Remember if you forget your roll when camping in winter you can just cut down some bracken and fir branches, or end up like the Dialov group....or you can be an adult and no longer do it 😁
Hwc. T
So let me get this straight? Everyone is in a basement? #BasementBlaze
I have RLS but I also do what you do....the foot tapping. I have noticed the slight shake in your mic. I do it because I think I'm constantly wired and while my brains pre-occupied watching RUclips, I need to do something with my hands or feet, i.e, tapping. At bed time, my body is knackered but my brains going 100mph!
Magnesium is a natural muscle relaxer you might want to try it
The tangents are brilliant. As a single parent with not many friends, it's videos like Simon's that make folding the mountains of washing on my own that much easier and less lonely lol
I have ADHD and I LOVE Simon's tangents. It's exactly how I tell stories too.
I wonder how I ever proposed without going on a rant about how I got the props before popping the question.
I also like Simon's tangents.
same
Same!❤❤❤
I don't have any form of ADHD/ADD... But, I'm not going to lie here, this is pretty much how I retell every story... Aww, sh,**, this is just how I TALK, period?!
...God, no wonder I'm such an ASS & people hate me so much. Note that I am most definitely including "myself" there when I use the word "people."
Anyone remember that dark, dark time when Simon forced Danny to stop making introductions and a lot of us in the comments section were like "Well it's a bit shit now isn't it." And then steadily over time the introductions returned. Skipping Introductions written by talented writers is detrimental to productivity, don't do that.
I think he only cut like 3 sentences, but the intro itself was also only like 9 sentenced that got stretch into 8 minutes somehow..
@@ThatWriterKevin I'm tempted to go back and see how many tangents Simon throws during the Intro. 😂
@@Dan19870 A LOT
@@ThatWriterKevin At this point the channel should probably be renamed Brain Tangent (or Tangent Blaze...) as they generally make up at least half, often more, of every episode lol
@@burtdurger847 great, give Simon another channel to do! But I ditto blaze tangent. I love the tangents and stories, I don't understand disliking the intros, I love the intros, they're always so...... Full of story telling and random facts and different cultures. Love that. Love hearing about where the writers are from and their backgrounds. Love hearing Simons stories. Curious about the editors stories
28:00 "it's probably a placebo, so don't tell me it's a placebo, because then it would stop working"
That was just brilliant
Simon needs his own ads. "Have you been diagnosed with smooth brain? Take a few hours of Whistlerverse content a day and you will be right as rain. Ask your doctor if Whistler is right for you."
I’d whitelist Simons ads in my adblockers
caution: Whistlerverse may cause tangents
:PPPPPP
Side effects may include cravings for basement mushrooms
@@vitorbonifacio3550 some tangents may become severe, if this occurs please consult your doctor. 😆
Simon needs to do a Brain Blaze episode when he's drunk. Imagine the rambling stories then!! It would be amazing.
Sell tickets, make some popcorn and sit back and laugh your butt off.
You mean he's not?
@@artykaye5465 Nah, he's on cocaine. Know your lore, man
@@bonniea8189 exactly! And obviously that's what's causing his restless legs!
@@bonniea8189
What fun is cocaine without alcohol?
I come here for the tangents as much as I come for the actual content. I love Simon's tangents.
What! there was content?...;-)
I can go anywhere for a talking head. Simon's tangents (and those of his writers) provide depth.
We all do. Simon has no idea why people like Brain Blaze. If he understood he wouldn't cut off the intros or apologize for his rambling.
@@katelyndombach4726 nah, they add to the suggestion of content which in turn acts as prompt material for more tangents
I guess we have a club now....
As a city boy in America I absolutely LOVE when I go to the extremely small town my father grew up in and strangers smile and wave to each other for no other reason but to be friendly conversations rarely start up.
At 7:55 when Kevin wrote, "And since Simon is probably confused," it cut off and I got an ad from RUclips about dementia. The timing. The accuracy.
lol I got a crypto scam
"Livin the dream" is my favorite response to receive. My retort back is, "nightmares are dreams too" and most have no idea how to respond to that... and that brings me much joy.
I usually say I'm here or I'm existing if i say anything at all.
Simon- rambles for 5 minutes Also Simon- WERE 6 minutes into the introduction don’t make me beat you
The greeting thing is VERY dependent on location. You try that in cities like Chicago, L.A., New York, etc. and you will be lucky to not get in a fist fight. More rural areas it is pretty common, something I have heard is reasonably common world wide. The more crowded an area is, the more you are expected to keep to your self. The more open and spacious an area is, the more likely people will regularly greet each other even when they have never met before.
To a certain extent it may be a cultural defense mechanism: If you are passing 500 people per minute while walking, it becomes VERY difficult to greet each other and people start trying to pull back to protect personal space. When you see one person every couple of minutes walking down the other side of the road, it is a lot simpler to nod and say hello to each person without feeling like the world is being forced upon you.
Had a friend move from KC to a podunk nowhere town in Eastern Colorado, she was confused as heck when her husband would just wave to random people he didn't know. I'd grown up there, so I just found it normal. Didn't know it was such odd behavior.
This is the same across the world, the more crowded a place is, the less likely people are to want to engage, usually because it would be tiring to do so, with so many people but also because there are far more crazy or desperate people in cities and one of the signs of their presence is interacting with strangers.
So in rural or smaller cities we'll be far more likely to greet people or even stop for a brief conversation with a stranger because we have less fear and usually more time for it.
It is only natural.
Between the topics and tangents I have probably forgotten what half of the topics were. That's why this channel is fun, keep up the good work and don't cut the intros short!
As a former nurse (disabled by MS), Id tell patients to see a doctor if its something that interferes with sleep or disrupts daily life. Restless Leg syndrome is a real thing and can cause you to lose sleep. It can cause a range of other problems as well. Some patients may have anxiety when it comes to bedtime and other may develop insomnia.
Never feel like youre wasting a doctors time. Talk to them about your concerns and discuss different ways to help live your best life.
Another thing I tell friends and family is to get your annual check up. Its super important in keeping you healthy and informed. I can't stress that enough.
Doctors are expensive and denial is free!
This is a joke (kinda I live in the US lol)
I missed the hour long brain blazes. With Simon snorting copious amounts of cocaine
His nose fell off. He's now got one of these Eric Clapton deals.
As to brutally mismatched teams, Simon have you ever done a video related to our Canadian pastime of ice hockey? I remember at the Italian winter Olympics (because Italy is a wintery nation?), normally Italy wouldn't qualify to post a team to ice hockey in the Olympics, but as the host country, this was waived. The Italian women's team (I'm surprised they found enough people in Italy who even know what hockey is) drew the worst-case scenario for their first match. Canada. The Canadian women beat them 36-0 in that game. To put this in perspective, a normal hockey match at the international level is usually decided by a one goal margin, like 1-0 or 2-1 or something...
Yeah. I remember that. It was pretty cringy to watch.
6:00 - Chapter 1 - Greek life
14:15 - Chapter 2 - College sports
16:35 - Mid roll ads
18:40 - Back to chapter 2
26:55 - Chapter 3 - Ask your doctor about
35:35 - Chapter 4 - How it's going ?
16:36 Simon tantion
@@esbeng.s.a9761 lol do you get the feeling simon had no one to talk to for a few days too? pmsl
You made it! Beardblaze! Yo you have been catalyzed.. yes
5.14.....ads
Simon, you fail to appreciate how much joy we get from your tangents.
I went to visit Italy while my partner worked there on scholarship as apart of a study abroad program. She spoke some Italian, I spoke none. Her advice to me was don't talk to anyone unprovoked, or just mumble "excusa" when getting around. You'll blend right in. Act like you belong and the language barrier pretty much goes away. Which is such a difference from walking around the United States where someone could just completely unprovoked start a conversation with me when I don't know them or care to know them.
Yup. We're pretty friendly in most parts of the country. We wave at each other, wave pedestrians across the street even if we don't have a stop sign, and they don't have a cross wave. We wave thanks when someone lets us move into the only traffic lane when the road narrows. Yup. We're friendly.
And, Simon. Doctors don't prescribe drugs. The rep comes in, sells the new drug to the nurse, she tells the busy doctor, then the patient comes in after being bombarded with print, radio, and tv/RUclips ads about this great drug, and don't the people taking it look radiant and youthful
Escusa, there's no ex sound. It's a bit of a point of contention because so many English speakers say expreso instead of espresso
@@sophuzzy well, I guess I live in a shit part of the country. Every time I leave my house, I'm accosted by junkies begging me for money and cigarettes. Sometimes in my own goddamned hallway...
So you have an issue with people in the US being friendly? lol
@@alexschneider8494 There's a difference between friendly and intrusive. Helping people that need help is friendly. Exchanging a few words in the check out line or thanking your cashier for the service is friendly. Easing off the gas when you're driving so someone can switch lanes easier is friendly.
Chatting someone up for 30 minutes that are just trying to get home to their family and doesn't give a damn about you is not really that friendly. You're just holding them ransom to politeness and the crazy thing is you do this even when you don't want to have the chat either. Why is this not weird to you?
70s and 80s college movies make college look like fun, until you realize that everything you thought looked fun is a felony.
There's something oddly soothing about story time with Simon ( Yes I mean the tangents ) it's nice to sit back and just go wherever the current stream of consciousness takes him .I wonder how American tourists in the Uk feel when the most enthusiastic response they are likely to get to "How You doing?" is likely to be "Yeah ,not too bad " or "Could be worse " .
"How you doing" nor "How are you" isn't said over here in the UK. They all say "You alright?" Or in the Republic of Ireland it's "Are You Okay?" To which the correct response would be "Ya You?" and if you're not used to it you could end up going through this over n over. As an American living here for over a decade I still can't do this feeling natural. When I first started hearing that I kept wanting to ask everyone, "Why, what have ya heard" or "Yeah, why?" They are a silly bunch.
Ngl we here in the US do very similar stuff, now most of us are very stupid so I can't speak for everyone, but I think there's a few of us who would understand quite quickly
I feel like if I were visiting the US, and be asked that same thing as a form of polite greeting all day... I'd start answering with something in the lines of "Tired of strangers asking me weird shit all the time"
It's like a forty minute tangent with a few minutes of Brain Blaze wedged in sideways. I love it.
Holy crap, Simon setting a new record in tangents! 🤣🤣
The real tangent was the script
What was the script even about today?
We'll eventually get to the point where so many tangents have occurred that we somehow end up back on topic.
I stopped counting at Tangent-38.
Heh, in my high school, football was _huge._ I was in marching band, so I was at every game. Our school, and most schools in the area, had proper stadiums, and while not _every_ game filled our stadium up, playoff games always did, as did Homecoming games. Even more impressive was when the visiting team would fill the other side of the stadium, which, granted, was smaller than the Home side, but still impressive considering they had to drive up to an hour to get there.
All in all, I'd say it wasn't at all uncommon to have about a thousand people there, sometimes more, and yes, some games were televised locally.
Honestly Simon I love listening to your tangents. While I love the actual content of the video, the tangents give the videos their flavor and that's what keeps me around.
Danny needs to write a script for Simon explaining the popularity of school sports in Texas and other southern states. And the competitions between school drum corps and cheerleader groups is just as fierce and have been popularized in several major Hollywood films.
YES! THIS! I AGREE!
Competitive Cheerleader for seven year can confirm that competitions were intense. The slightest bobble could cost you first place.
Being from Texas, I would love to see Simon' s response to this. Friday Night Lights baby!
BTW, my high-school stadium was as big as most Colleges. If that tells you anything.
Ah, yeah, it's easy to forget but Cheerleading is just as competitive as actually playing the sport, it just isn't in the public eye as much.
It's sort of like the modeling industry. There's so much weird stuff in the modeling industry that no one is talking about. I remember Tyra Banks was doing a casual interview talking about modeling and I was like "K, that's kinda weird," when I heard it at first, then a few hours later I was like "Wait, what? That's actually really messed up."
I live in Brooklyn, NYC and have lived here all my life. You don't interact with another person unless you personally know them. Greeting dogs is generally acceptable but another person is straight up weird. Visiting my grandparents in rural Texas was always really weird because EVERYONE says hello to each other. Don't matter if you know them or not. Walking through the grocery store is like a nightmare for an introvert such as myself. It was like everytime we got done with Howdy's to one person it was time to do it with a new person. Even just walking down the road people slow their damned cars down to say Howdy. It's fricking weird.
Sad that more and more people loose the ability to live like an adult human being.
I'm near DC and it's the same. Don't look at my eyes, look at your feet you monsters!
I live near DC. I don’t generally greet random people on the street, but I will sometimes strike up a conversation with people in the elevator or something. If you can’t deal with that, you’re not an introvert. You’re a person who doesn’t really know how to socialize.
@@michaelimbesi2314 I'd say it's both. Humans are exhausting. I do well enough with internet interactions but generally hate face-to-face ones. I especially hate huggers and people who seek physical contact when talking. I enjoy spending time with one or two people I am close to but I don't invite people into my apartment ever. I also need to actually have a plan or activity to deal with people. Spontaneous interactions are terrible.
Howdy from Texas!
My in-laws have been going to Washburn Rural High School (Topeka, KS) competitions since 1994, when my husband started school there. In gratitude, the school gave them free lifetime passes to all home competitions in ANY sport!
Indiana native here. Tri-Kappa (a philanthropic sorority) is considered to have a funny name because it shares its abbreviation with another less-charitable organization. Tune in next time for another thrilling episode of "Yet Even More Things Americans Find Unfortunate That Simon Finds Totally Incomprehensible"!
Tri-Kappa was founded by that other organization. Just like Kappa Kappa Kappa was founded by the same group.
The "how's it going?" Part of this video is absolutely gold. Atleast a dozen times a day 😂
It took me a moment to get the Kappa Kappa Kappa fraternity joke, and I am not American, I guess Simon was too busy reading to get the subtext.
I really didn't think it needed explaining. I thought it was so obvious. Also, real organizations, not even a joke
@@ThatWriterKevin yikes, I feel like a sheltered Australian 😮 these things are messed up!
There are 68 teams in March Madness because in the teams are broken into 4 brackets (16 teams each) with each bracket representing the South, East, West and Midwest. The teams are ranked 1 through 16 with an additional 4 games (1 game each) being played at the start of the tournament for one of the ranked positions called the First Four. The First Four games consist of games between the 2 lowest ranked teams (#65 vs #66 and #67 vs #68) and the 2 lowest "at large" ranked teams. Thus 64 (teams in tournament)+ 4(teams eliminated in First Four games)= 68. Also I don't know how they determine which rank has to have 2 teams battle for the spot.
TLDR: 8 teams play for 4 spots. 64+4=68
Simon needs a channel, where he's just rambling, telling stories.
This!!! Just random stories and tangents about his day. 😂😂😂
His podcast is basically that 🤣, it's awesome.
That's pretty much this channel ngl
that is 90% of the reason I watch this channel
Surrounded by his parchments, candles quills and inkpots.
Fun Fact with collegiate sports in America, many colleges and universities make so much money from football that it enables them to have other sports. Football literally supports all of the other sports because it's the only sport that actually makes those schools money.
I don't think anyone should make money from sports, the fact that athletes often make more than actually useful professions like teacher, librarians, janitors literally any non entertainment profession is a heinous injustice, the best paid people should be the ones who actually contribute to the advancement of the human race, so no arts or entertainment or athletes or ceos it should be those in STEM making millions of dollars followed by educators, production workers, government employees, then service industry workers
At University of Alaska our hockey team funds our swim team
@agneslawson9276 is that because your swim team isn't good enough? Not a jab I know nothing about any college sports team but it seems logical that if they won a lot they'd be funding something else rather than being funded
@@omgandwtf1 The swim team is newer. The hockey team was founded a few years after the college was founded, almost a century ago whereas the swim team is still under 2 decades old, though they've gotten some titles, because there are fewer people on the team, once they graduate there are fewer to support the team. With hockey the whole team is bigger, obviously, so training across years is smoother so the team is more consistently ranking. The difficulty with the cost is because of heating a pool in Alaska though shockingly those are our biggest sports.
@@omgandwtf1 Lmao
Lol that sub-basement is getting crowded….the fixed neon sign, ETA, Danny and now Kevin. Gonna need a sub sub basement soon 😂😂😂
Wait he’s got the fixed one in the blazement yet keeps the broken one upstairs?
Having chronic insomnia and horrible RLS. its soooooo painful. Its so hard to live with especially when sleep is already such a nightmare struggle (yes shaking all the time is 100% RLS). I feel ya Simon, Shake those legs with me for life, its the only way to not go crazy lol.
On the topic of Smiling and talking to strangers, while the 20-30 min conversation is SO unneeded and absolutely happens all the time. I LOVE people, I truly do, If i can do anything to make a stranger feel better in 5 seconds i'll do it. I smile at people because I'm generally happy to see a face I dont know. HOWEVER, ever since I was a little kid, i despised the fake responses of others, and the surface bull. I always answer honestly, if my day is horrible and it sucks, even if im at work. I'll say you know what, I wont lie to you so, it really sucks and i'm having a really rough day. I always follow it up with "I'm MORE than happy to stop working tho to go help you" because I would generally prefer that 5 min of helping someone and maybe learning something random about a Stranger and making them smile.
I really should be ready not to do this outside of the US I think haha.
Also, Simon, most people start college at 18. Some started grade school early or graduated early so they're a bit ahead. Some take a break so are a bit later in starting college. The legal drinking age is 21, so yeah, lots of time to totally not being drinking at parties.
More specifically I'd say most people start college in the calendar year of their 18th birthday, but latter-third of the year babies will still be 17 when they actually start.
And in England you’d be lucky to go to a park after dark without seeing a bunch of 14 year olds around a bottle of jack
@@Jessepigman69 What's Jack in England? The 14 year olds at parks in the Midlands are necking bottles of cheap Cider. They all need ASBOs too. Little bastards they are.
@@Julia-uh4li aye I’ll give you that big bottle of red rooster.
@@JennaGetsCreative not in the US, as school entrance cuts off typically around august, so if you were born after that, you will enter school the next year
There are quite a lot of fraternities and some sororities in Germany. And they are different than what you see in the US. They started a couple of centuries ago, when students had to travel around the country to study at different universities from different professors, much like carpenters and masons were (and still are) travelling to different masters to learn different techniques in their crafts. At that time, most people did not travel around. Most would rarely leave their home village, sometimes going to the market the next town over or *gasp* peddling their goods at a city 50km away. Going hundreds of km from north to south or east to west meant leaving your comfort zone, meeting people with different dialects or even speaking a different language. When you arrive somewhere, you had nothing in common with those folk. So students were quite happy to meet others from a round the same area they were from. They started the first "fraternities" called "Landsmannschaften", compiled of students from the same region. Those later developed into a more diverse jumble of groups like "Corps" (made up from or forming a military unit), "Burschenschaften" (quite a broad term, often used for all student clubs nowadays), "Turnerschaften" (frats with a focus on sports), "Sängerschaften" (frats with a focus on music) and other student clubs (e.g. with catholic background or just providing less expensive housing to students and having some fun drinking). In the early days, as women were not allowed to go to university, those were traditionally only made up by males. Some later developed to incorporate women, too. Most are still male-only, basing this on their tradition, while some female-only student societies came up over the years. But as most women consider this kind of society rather stupid (guys hanging out with guys, drinking themselves blind, singing a lot of old songs, dressing up in formal gear, fencing with sharp weapons (albeit, a lot of padding), drinking some more, vomiting all over, having drinking competitions with other fraternities, consecutively barfing more...you get the picture). Sororities are doing the same stuff as their male counterparts, often exchanging the beer for sparkling or diluted wine and being at least a bit less obnoxious (AFAIK...maybe correct me on this ;-)).
To sum it all up: On the plus site, you get a) cheaper housing, b) instantly have a community you are a part of, c) usually get some amenities like a nice house, a library, a community kitchen, internet, parties, etc., d) to be part of an old tradition, e) get to meet the older members that often are now successful lawyers, professors or businessmen and can offer you a leg-up in your career when you are done with uni, f) a lot of drinking (if you consider this a plus). On the minus side of things, you enter into a rather stiff and formal society ruled by old (and often outdated) views. Most members are studying law, finance or medicine, which screams conservative loudly. And some go more to the right and end up being right-out fascist in their views. This is why most are considered a target by the more left-leaning students. Sometimes rightly so, sometimes not. Those fraternities govern themselves and will have weekly or monthly meetings to determine party planning, excursions and official meetings with the senior members (aka those that shell out the money to make all that possible).
You are held to some standards and will be expelled or sanctioned for bad things you did. If you are drinking too much and people are starting to worry about it, you can be cut off from alcohol on the house or other frat houses. If you behave in a way unbecoming of the frat, you have to apologize to the offended party and may get to work it off. You are expected to present your fraternity with dignity to the public and follow the rules as a member.
As you might expect from Germans, drinking yourself silly just like that is not to be expected. Even drinking follows strict rules. It often is made into a competition of who can drink faster (one-on-one challenge) or who can drink more and faster (often a group challenge). Sometimes with added difficulties like drinking upside-down, on one leg, without shoes in the snow, etc. This is usually done in formal wear or at least with some decorum. What you do not see (as far as I can tell) is half-naked drunk people with a tie as a bandana chugging bear from a keg. Older members will cut in at some level and make sure this reputation damaging conduct will not happen (but it probably will happen despite that).
That said, yes, I am a member of a fraternity and chose it firstly for the inexpensive room, but stayed for the good company. The rules are a bit stiff, but so are family dinners^^ I was very happy to discover that not all frats are racist dens, as I lean quite a bit to the left. I did not drink, which made me a very good observer of others overdoing it and stepping in when needed. You may be surprised to hear this, but there is an old rule book from 1899 "Allgemeiner Deutscher Bier Comment" (Universal German Beer Rules) in which is discussed that other drinks are also possible for those rituals, including water. Since most people nowadays know that alcoholism and drunk driving are bad stuff, fraternities accept it, when you do not drink beer, but use any other drink for those challenges instead.
If this kind of society is something you may like, you should check them out. At least in Germany, most traditional university cities (like Jena, Bonn, Tübingen, etc.) have a lot of different fraternities. Special information for Simon: Prague founded the first university in Europe in 1348 and was a long time part of the Holy Roman Empire an part of Germany. A lot of different fraternities were located in Prague, yet most of them did not survive the world wars (the N@zis got rid of a lot of them, because they were conservative, but would not go all the way to genocide). There is one catholic fraternity (KStV Pragensis) today.
When you were saying, "Sporty, sporty, sport, sports." I really felt that in my heart. We like hockey and baseball, but otherwise, we are not a sports family. I have three sons and they are all musically and artistically inclined. We call all sports, "Sport Ball."
I love hockey and basketball, partner does not, and he always says something like "Oh yeah, so-and-so (basketball player) scored a hat trick in the tennis game last night and won" just to piss me off (just makes me roll my eyes, tbh), so I'm gonna start mixing up boxing and UFC fighters/terms just to piss him off!
Yep, sports ball. When someone brings up sports I just smile and nod.
@@jacquelynsmith2351 lol. Great strategy!
@@jacobswafford1151 my husband has to do this all the time. 🤣🤣🤣
Not smart enough to understand sports, eh? That’s ok. I’m not mad. Amused af tho 😅
I love the footsteps sound effect, makes me chuckle every time.
You had me at 'sporty sporty sport sports' 🤣🥰
Where I live my high school football games had 2 student sections. 1 was for high school students. The other one was for middle school students. They often yell chants during the game to cheer on their team, sometimes even throwing shade at the other team. There is also a section for the high school marching band. They play the fight song every time their team scores. The rest of the stands were for parents and other people that bought tickets to the game. I want to say they would have about 4,000 people at any given home game. Our volleyball and basketball teams also had enough people going to games to have a student section. Sports are just really big in the US.
It is absolutely the way of the world in America that we enthusiastically greet each other, even if we're total strangers. It's seen as strange not to. In rural areas, it even extends to people driving on the road or past someone's house. If you're outside, you wave at the person driving by, and they wave back.
Absolutely.
People actually think you are rude if you are in the climax of your book, but won't pause to say hello. We are not friends Susan, I just want this Dr. Pepper and some beef jerky. They are about to announce the killer, say hello to yourself.
Anti-social people trying hard to be invisible to the smiling extroverts ...
Especially in rural mid-west towns like where I live, high-school football is EVERYTHING! People take it VERY seriously.
Just watched the Axeman Of New Orleans Casual Criminalist episode and Kevin's slight jab at Simon about long introductions in the intro of that episode hit harder after seeing this.
My sides hurt laughing
Hahaha “living the dream!”! I say that hundreds of times a day… so much that I have shortened it to “dreamy”. And you hit the nail on the head… that is exactly what it means when I say it. So funny!
I love how he admitted that he’s from the UK when he was talking about nepotism and corruption in the US. I was going to have a problem if he didn’t. I would’ve been like, “Hey Fact boi, you’re English and my country inherited a few things from yours.”
They literally have a throne of nepotism😂
You did indeed inherit a fair few things from us. Just a shame it was none of the good stuff. 👍
@@burtdurger847 we inherited world domination.
@@mattway18 LMAO, quality response 🤣
@@burtdurger847 I saw your respond notification on my phone and I thought that you were going to be offended 😂😂😂
I went to university in Brisbane (Australia) in 2000 and we didn’t have fraternities, but we had “societies”. They’d roam around campus trying to recruit people to join; which involved a membership fee, and they’d have their group parties and what not, some had t-shirts and other merch, but they weren’t anywhere near as exclusive or competitive as American fraternities. Every year a couple of the engineering societies (we had more than one per university; and several universities in Brisbane) would organise a pub crawl, and all were welcome. It was a great time.
In Germany we actually do have a very old culture of fraternities. Some of them are still very oldscool with specific names and colours, only allowing males, crazy hazing rituals and fencing with sharp swords... There also exist more modern ones which allow females, but a lot less
Plus, a fair number of those old school fraternities is under observation by the intelligence agencies for being potentially dangerous extremists.
Yeah, look up "Schmiss".
Dunno how it’s over the border but here in austria if someone brings up a fraternity most people assume it has something to do with politically *extremely* right leaning people
@@gidelix Those weren't that right in the past. More conservative. But as they fell out of favour only a certain people seem to have clung on to it.
Somehow I didn't need to explain my facial scar as coming from Heidelberg,
I can picture it now. A bunch of Simons playing high-school sports. Two teams of 14-year-olds with bald heads and bushy beards, absolutely not caring about the sport that they're supposed to be playing. It would be epic.
The main reason fraternities were tolerated in my college days was because they threw awesome parties, but other than that they were clowned on by pretty much everyone else
The college doesn't care because they pay the school lol.
Once I used "OK frat boy" as a dismissal. The guy wasn't one, but it still worked.
Simon there are two varsity matches that are normally televised, the big one, that’s the annual Oxford Cambridge boat race. Which is on the river Thames between Putney and Mortlake. And the smaller one, the Annual Varsity Rugby match, played at the home of English rugby, Twickenham, again between Oxford and Cambridge. It is said that best not to require the services of a medical consultant on the day of the match, as chances are they will be at the game 😊
The joke about the tri kappa fraternity is that it's full name is Kappa Kappa Kappa, the Greek letter K. Organizations whose names are composed mainly of three K's are quite problematic in the US. The Tri Kappa fraternity changed one of the characters so that there's only two K's in the name now.
Edit: Also, my dad says that shaking your legs means that you're going to be poor. My Grandma said that shaking your leg shows that you have no manners. I still shake my legs when I sit, which is probably why I'm both poor and act like a slob.
Edit2: Make eye contact in NYC, and get ready to throw down. I once accidentally made eye contact with a granny on the R one morning. Granny started screaming at me to "mind you're own f***ing business!" Then I went to college in MA and was freaked out when people made eye contact, smiled and said hello. Thought I was going to be mugged or something.
The NYC suburbanites also hate eye contact. But rural New Yorkers act more like New Englanders, especially in the northern border section where they’re closer to Vermont or Canada than they are to Albany or Syracuse.
Further to that, for people completely out of the loop the names reference the violent racist organisation "KKK" Ku Klux Klan
Brain Blaze without at least one tangent would be boring. I love the channel for the well written scripts and Simon's tangents. Oh and Sam's memes. Can't forget those
7:26 Germany does have them, some of them (not all) even have some pretty racist rules as they only allow people of a certain christian domination that can prove they're like 3 generation German and most only allow males. There are some female and mixed gender ones but those are rare. They also have houses for members to live in, those are way cheaper than normal flats in the surrounding City and also come with a life long obligation to help out in the future once you've made it. No clue about the hazing but some have induction rituals, mostly fencing where they also have their own circuits.
Oh my god, that “how’re you doing?” Response translations is scarily accurate and never realized it…
At work everyone asks us how we’re doing and the default answer is “fantastic” or “living the dream”… and we all hate our existence lol
Missed the real existential one
"Hey, how's it going?"
"Oh, it's going"
I never knew just how bad RLS could get until I tried to find some info on how to reduce it... And came across an interview with a lady that almost offed herself because it was so bad it felt like her legs were ripping themselves apart every night...
For most (like myself, and I PRESUME Simon) it is just a horribly uncomfortable sensation that starts out mild, but gets stronger the longer you ignore it much like many bug bites/rashes. The difference is you get relief by moving your legs instead of scratching the itch.
I have heard several descriptions for the sensation, many varying WILDLY from what I get, but for me it feels like a combination of the sensation you get when you hit your funny bone (for those not familiar with the term, it is a nerve cluster in your elbow that is not very well protected, and is REALLY uncomfortable when something hits it,) and something crawling under your skin. And those sensations just keep getting stronger until you move.
My favorite is always "Do not Take Lyrica if you are allergic to Lyrica or the ingredients in Lyrica."
Antidepressants causing s thoughts or actions lol
Mmm isn't the only way to find out your allergic to it is to take it😳
Congrats Simon, you beat the record, 14 minutes and 17 seconds before i figured out what the bloody hell you were talking about.......LOVE IT!!!!! Tiny brain i guess i am....lol
I am a southern talker, I know others sometimes don't like it, but. I do have to say after 20 min of talking I would think we are starting a friendship.
People, to me, don't qualify as more than acquaintances until at least a year of consistent, willing interaction. Then again I generally don't remember to ask people's names until several months into knowing them so I'm an outlier here.
@@antidotebrain69 lol why do you think old southern women call you by everything but your name, we don't remember.
@@kreiner1 i figured it was cultural tbh. My paternal gran was like that. I also find Southerners generally overwhelming, like sensory overload. I think i just have several issues lol.
@@antidotebrain69 you are good the way you are! If we are overwhelming you tell us to stop ✋️, you have every right to be comfortable. My son really does not to be touched very much, I always ask for hugs instead of just hugging as I do with my other kids. After being around other people a lot he needs, really needs time alone. If I see someone pushing it with him I will step in a let him make a break for it lol. There is nothing wrong with you, not everyone wants to be smothered with a random person walking up acting like they've known you all your life. As far as real, real friends, I have had 3 in my 50 years, husband not included, and I think I am a really lucky woman to have had that many.
You tell stories like the guy that worked for me, Alex. Great guy! Hard worker, very smart....
Would start a story in the middle and work his way to both ends.... Drove me out of what little mind I once had....
Simon: "But we are six minutes in"....
Literally 4 minutes of that wasn't part of the script! 🤣
Simon: "why are you still here, I'm just going off on tangents"
Also Simon: Heads off on another tangent immediately, then another!
At some point he might go on tangents ABOUT going on tangents.
@@teresastabler He achieved that about a year ago :)
And meanwhile Jen on point with highlighting the tangent focus.
I do believe this might have been the most tangent packed video yet. thankfully the editors have a clip for every. single. one.
I came for the collegiate sports, but stayed for Simon's rambling tangents. 😂
Australians say "How you going?" which always sounds weird to me, since North Amricans say "How're you doing?" or "How's it going?", but it's never been *confusing*. It's a normal greeting.
I came here to listen to Simon utterly roast my college experience.
Did not disappoint.
Gotta say, you really nailed it on the side effects script.
At least per Mayo clinic, Simon is mostly right, it's an uncontrollable urge to move the legs for varied reasons usually an extremely unpleasant feeling that can also vary and be hard to describe or define. It's typically most common at night or when sitting/laying down and trying to rest.
It's literally like having things crawling inside your muscles and pulling inside your legs, it can be veryyyy painful.
I remember an ad for a Restless Leg medication, and one of the possible side effects was "increased urge to gamble."
Simon; Those of us who giveyou the full watch time of a video want to hear both long intros and the tangents (even if Sam doesn't!!!), it's far, far better than the shite on the telly, so, long vids of waffle are best... :P
Another common answer to "How are you?" is "I'm making it". I adopted it because my answer was always an exhausted "same," or "I hear ya". And that's how everyone answers me as well, so it just feels the most honest. 😂
Today's top headline: Florida woman (really, Florida? Again?) suing because she says Velveeta shells and cheese cup prep time is deceptive.
We've normalized stupid lawsuits.
Plus: Yes, Simon, there is a difference between restless leg syndrome and the inability to sit still. 😁
Part of the time it feels like the only way to target false advertising is lawsuits, not in this case though😂
@@2lefThumbs The time my roommate reads the label "cheese food spread". It's not an afghan for your cheese food, it's not food you feed a cheese, is it cheese or even food? Love Lehto's law.
In a lot of US universities, on-campus dorms (residence halls) don't include food. At mine, meal plans were a seperate fee. Well worth the $100-200 per semester, but still!
Instead of going on tangents during the episodes, Simon should just compile a list of all the tangents he wants to go on from several episodes and make a new channel just called "Tangents" where he just posts 10 to 20 minute videos of him ranting about random things.
But the tangents come up from random bits of script. Like, you think these are planned?? He could cut them all out and stick them in a different video but there would be no context.
Why not just leave em in so the video is longer (more watchtime) and then cut all the best tangents out and make a 10-20 min video of tangent comps to monetize the tangents a second time lol
@@wilhelmusrobben9953 Big Brain Boi identified!!!!
@@wilhelmusrobben9953 Hell yeah. He could get one of his editors to turn them into "RUclips shorts" and make some $$$ from them. Good thinking.
@@maxbracegirdle9990 A 3 hour video isn't a short... And that is using just 1 tangent.
Now you know why we have all those ask your doctor about whatever medication commercials lol
Simon's liberal sprinkling of tangents and Sam's commentary had me rolling 😂
OMG the fun edditing was ON POINT in this video XDDDD
Thx dear Editor :D !🧡
Omg, as I doctor I love it when people come in with a non-serious thing! I need brain breaks between the complex patients!! 😬
My cousin loves that his son is also a fan of rugby, so he can drive him everytime he has a match to play and drink until he passes out on the hotel room with other dads, while the kids play videogames until late at night.
I can understand that tbh.
I enjoyed the school football tangent. I am also British and of a similar age to you, so I also remember the boredom of sitting on a freezing bench on a Friday (my school district was obviously just a little bit nicer to us than yours 😂) talking to an equally bored me from another school both wishing we were pretty much anywhere else. They didn't even let you go home if you faked being ill. They benched you. Dick's.
My stock response to "How's it going?" is "Slowly but surely."
15:00 many of those athletes get a free ride that would otherwise be unavailable. So basically we just pay to watch poor people's children play dangerous games.
9:25 Sam, I think you should've had three kappas floating around the screen to help Simon out here...
College sports are nuts. I'll never understand why someone would choose to be a super rabid fan of a college football team when they never attended that college, never had a son or daughter or relative that went to that college, and probably couldn't even get into that college. I know a few people from the American south who take days off from work to attend SEC football games (not soccer - I mean the *real* football). Some even go to high school football games at high schools they have no connection to. They seem like decent and smart people otherwise.
Real? 🤣 Less than 10% compared to 'soccer' globally. We do have rabid supporters of teams from cities they have never even visited ... so agree with you there.
“…and I’m running out of antibiotics.” LEGEND!
Simon saying that Czech people don’t talk to you on the street is odd for me because the only place I had someone have a conversation with me out of nowhere was in Prague. I’m used to it here in the southern US but it probably would’ve helped if I spoke Czech.
Got dangerous swelling around my heart from Lyrica. Sam’s tangent memes had my rolling this time. Thanks Sam!❤️
My wife and I were on a road trip once, and we stopped in a little gas station convenience store for snacks. The checkout lady thought it was really important to point out their high school football star to us as we were paying for our chips. We’re from New York/New Jersey, don’t watch sports, and we were in the south when this happened so we even thought it was a little weird.
Someone in eastern KY/ western WV asks how ya are, we usually say, "hair in a biscuit."
As in- hanging in there like a hair in a biscuit lol😂
Simon: I'm sorry Kevin but we need more time for my stories! I'm the boss.
Me: I am here for Kevin and Danny's stories. Why can they go on epic stories in Decoding the Unknown but not on Brain Blaze, the channel that started it?
The face slap meme would have been perfect when Simon missed the "kappa kappa kappa" problem 😂
Restless Leg Syndrome can actually be pretty violent. I know a couple who sleep in separate beds because the guy kept leaving bruises all over his wife if they attempted to sleep in the same bed.
Simon, Right when you recommended {yelled} “Roll Some FAT MO’FKN BLUUNNNNTS”, my husband was next to me Lighting a fat mo’fkn blunt…. 😆 cheers. Ahaha
Sam totally called the tangent run! Had me dying laughing! You definitely need to give him extra bread crumbs this week!
Winter camping is only hellish if you aren't prepared. 😊
Simon, in the US you need an undergrad degree to go to med school and in the UK you don't, that's why your med school is 6 years and ours is 4. We also have a longer residency period after med school.
Between simon in the beginning and sam's top tier memes throughout this has had me cracking up harder than any other video from the various channels of the whistlerverse
At this point Simon should just have a show where he talks about whatever comes to mind
Whistler's Weekly Whatevers or something like that, totally! Maybe with a big old hat of prompts given by the writers, pulled out of news headlines or his own old videos (as the Fact Boi, allegedly, doesn't remember any of them)
@@mormornie That sounds bloody brilliant! I'd definitely watch or listen to that