-
[funky rock intro music]
-
TORY: So how're we gonna test
whether or not yawning is contagious?
-
SCOTTIE: Well, first we need
a test audience.
-
KARI: We're gonna have to isolate them
-
and be able to watch them
with hidden cameras.
-
TORY: And we're gonna
have to be able to control this...
-
let's say it's a room.
We build a room.
-
SCOTTIE: We're gonna have to plant
a yawning seed in- in the room as well
-
TORY: You mean someone who's in on the gag?
SCOTTIE: Somebody to start the yawn.
-
TORY: That's good, okay.
-
KARI: I think we can put an ad out
on the internet looking for extras,
-
and then we just
don't tell them what they're here for,
-
that way we can get them to
go sit in a waiting room
-
and we can start messing with their minds.
-
NARRATOR: Yawning is involuntary.
-
The mouth opens and the jaw drops
to allow in as much air as possible.
-
As the lungs fill to capacity,
-
stomach muscles contract,
and the diaphragm is pushed down.
-
The heart beats up to 30% faster.
-
Then, when the lungs are full,
excess air is expelled.
-
This time, they are testing
one variable only: the seeded yawn.
-
ADAM: Sorry, we've been up since four.
Back to your room.
-
KARI: Hello, come on in, follow me.
-
Sit in the little room quietly,
and I'll come get you briefly.
-
NARRATOR: There's three yawn cubicles,
each fitted with a hidden camera,
-
and one observation chamber,
where Tory is on watch.
-
Kari will yawn at
two of every three subjects
-
as she ushers them into their cubicle.
-
ADAM: So we're going to see
if they yawn faster
-
with some influence than without any,
-
and the third person will be a control,
which Kari will give no influence to,
-
and we'll see if there's actually a difference.
-
NARRATOR: So the experiment begins,
-
and Tory gets down to some careful
observation of the subjects doing...
-
well, doing nothing.
-
Absolutely nothing.
-
It's starting to seem like
the Mythbusters are just way too much fun
-
to evoke even the slightest yawn.
-
[groovy music]
-
Then, a breakthrough.
-
TORY, whispering: we may have
had a yawn in first.
-
NARRATOR: And after the drought,
a flood of yawning is unleashed.
-
The Mythbusters
suddenly have the Midas touch.
-
Even the local dogs get caught up
-
in the current of yawns
that's sweeping the market.
-
The experiment also suggests
-
that some guinea pigs
are more observant than others.
-
And, finally proving that
all good things must come to an end,
-
five hours and fifty test cases later,
the yawn-a-thon draws to a close.
-
TORY: That was it, that's the last one,
we're done.
-
NARRATOR: For Kari,
it's not a moment too soon.
-
KARI: I was yawning all day!
-
To the point where my cheeks were hurting
and my eyes were watering.
-
ADAM: Alright, well, after
testing fifty people in the field,
-
our largest sample we've ever
used on Mythbusters, the results are in,
-
and when the people we tested
got no seed yawn, no stimulus,
-
they yawn 25% of the time.
-
When they got stimulus,
they yawned 29% of the time.
-
JAMIE: Well, it's not dramatic, but it-
it seems like it's pretty good to me.
-
What do you guys think?
Busted, plausible, or confirmed?
-
ADAM: Given how large our sample was,
I'd say it's confirmed.
-
KARI: Confirmed.
TORY, overlapping: Yeah.
-
NARRATOR: There's little doubt,
it does seem to be contagious.
-
JAMIE: And I bet the audience
at home right now is probably yawning.
-
[laughter]
