Comments on: The latest yawn inducing Youtube post on Metafilter.

The latest yawn inducing Youtube post on Metafilter.

Effigy2000 — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 01:12:24 -0800

TV's Mythbusters, (and as such Metafilter's 'very own' asavage), hopes to use the global reach of Youtube to send a yawn around the world. "If only one per cent of the global population took part in the Yawn Around The World experiment then 65 million people would have yawned across the globe" Savage was quoted as saying. The equivalent amount of air exhaled would "be able raise the Titanic or even inflate all the bicycle tyres in Beijing." Fascinating stuff! Watch the (hopefully) yawn inducing footage here.

By: scallion

scallion — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 01:21:49 -0800

Man. I watched the video twice, and didn't come close to yawning at all, despite trying. I then went to the Wikipedia entry on yawning and over the course of reading the page, yawned four times.

By: Effigy2000

Effigy2000 — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 01:25:10 -0800

Yes, for what it's worth, I didn't yawn either. Maybe the footage was just far too exciting!

By: spacelux

spacelux — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 01:38:48 -0800

I think I need audio in order for this to work.

By: liquorice

liquorice — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 01:54:28 -0800

I yawned reading this (I don't mean that in a negative way, just all this mention of yawning brought about the urge).

By: antifuse

antifuse — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 02:45:36 -0800

Indeed - I had already yawned before seeing the footage, and just reading about it. Then I saw the (audioless) footage and really had to force myself to yawn. There, just yawned again writing this response.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 02:47:17 -0800

If this global megayawn was combined with World Jump Day, all the world's problems would be fixed in an instant. Probably.

By: Derek

Derek — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 02:58:12 -0800

After seeing the word yawn, I had the urge too, but for some reason cannot. My face is tingling at the prospect of a good yawn, but so far it's just those few pre-yawns.

By: naxosaxur

naxosaxur — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:20:25 -0800

studies have found that the more compassionate and empathetic you are, the more apt you are to yawn in response to the stimuli fyi

By: darkripper

darkripper — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:21:02 -0800

When you yawn it's your soul that tries to flee from your body.

By: uncle harold

uncle harold — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:43:54 -0800

Taking into account how contagious yawning is, this dangerous experiment may well have a negative impact on world econoydff *zzzz* *zzzz*

By: Chunder

Chunder — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 03:58:48 -0800

My only thought regarding this is what's the "reset time" between yawns - and whether this will lead to one big perpetually contagious yawn, traversing the globe? Yawns are contagious - so how many people does a yawn need to be passed through before the initiator can be induced to yawn again? Hmm... this is how the world ends; not with a bang, but with a yawn.

By: benATthelocust

benATthelocust — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 04:32:20 -0800

Dang I yawned just reading this thing! 'Course it's 0730 here.

By: Hildegarde

Hildegarde — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 04:50:45 -0800

I yawned when I first read the post, and then three times more while reading the comments. But I'm exhausted and don't feel like getting into the shower yet. Perfect post for a Monday morning.

By: pax digita

pax digita — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 05:06:15 -0800

dang, yawned twice just reading this far through the thread....

By: Smart Dalek

Smart Dalek — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 05:14:22 -0800

This is a very bad idea. If the goal is to get 65 million people to yawn, the expelled air could disrupt the rest of the world population's odds of inhaling a molecule of oxygen from Julius Caesar's final breath. I thought the Mythbusters were supposed to be more responsible than that...

By: MrMustard

MrMustard — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 05:21:10 -0800

Well I suppose it makes a change, Mythbusters deliberately making you yawn.

By: god hates math

god hates math — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 06:10:35 -0800

This book was torture when I was 12. I read it while waiting at the Dr.'s office, and let's just say I yawned a few times. (on preview - 5 times during the writing of this comment.)

By: [insert clever name here]

[insert clever name here] — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 06:21:28 -0800

I yawned reading this thread. Then yawned at the video. I'm yawning now talking about yawning. But I have always been an extremely sympathetic yawner. (can I put that on my resume?)

By: ob

ob — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 06:22:17 -0800

Please stop making me yawn, it makes the Coffee God angry.

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 06:50:23 -0800

I think naxos axur's comment is just about the only thing of interest in this thread. I move for deletion with FPPing of na's link.

By: bob sarabia

bob sarabia — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 07:07:38 -0800

I don't get it. They already did this on the show and found that they weren't really contagious. I guess they're trying on a big scale now? Anyway, I didn't yawn.

By: tadellin

tadellin — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 07:13:53 -0800

yawn.

By: wumpus

wumpus — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 07:15:42 -0800

so... is that pronounced Ass-Savage?

By: UbuRoivas

UbuRoivas — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 07:31:58 -0800

from naxosaxur's link: "I don't know if it's necessarily that nice people yawn more, but I think it's a good indicator of a state of mind," Platek said. "It's also a good indicator if you're empathizing with me and paying attention." this is gold. next time i am out on a date, i will make a point of yawning often during the girl's conversation, to test if she is an attentive, empathetic type.

By: artifarce

artifarce — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 10:10:05 -0800

I didn't yawn at the video. And I read all these comments AND still didn't yawn.

By: goodnewsfortheinsane

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 10:13:11 -0800

studies have found that the more compassionate and empathetic you are, the more apt you are to yawn in response to the stimuli That would support the evolutionary advantage it gives: by copying each others yawns, we establish an implicit agreement among the group that it is time to sleep. So then, are we copying the group alpha and, in that vein, if Adam's yawn does in fact evoke 'sympathy yawns' in us, does that mean that Adam is our leader? And if empathy and compassion as traits make one more copy-yawny, does that mean that copy-yawners are also more submissive? Not to mention the rebellious ones that rarely copy yawns - they stay up while everyone is asleep, which gives another evolutionary advantage: they can keep watch. </armchair>

By: elfgirl

elfgirl — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 10:45:31 -0800

No yawn. Maybe Adam just doesn't inspire much empathy.

By: quin

quin — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 10:49:41 -0800

I yawned. Repeatedly. I guess I'm just more empathetic than the rest of you worthless bastards. Compassionate too. Let me be the first to predict that the video of Adam will promptly be turned into an animated gif and used whenever someone finds a thread boring. Then some enterprising soul will take same footage and cut in an audio track of an opera singer holding a long note. It will be well done and people will laugh. Someone will one day link to it. And in the same thread someone will post the yawing gif to express their disdain with the whole concept. And thus, the whole of the internets will have come full circle. It won't be done here, but it will be done somewhere.

By: fungible

fungible — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 10:50:40 -0800

Stop! All the yawning creates excess CO2 in the atmosphere! I think we just lost another ice shelf!

By: Eideteker

Eideteker — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:14:04 -0800

Guys, guys, this is Metafilter's own asavage. We own him. How cool is that?

By: gigawhat?

gigawhat? — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 12:37:45 -0800

I like trying to make babies yawn. It works about 50% of the time. I once made my dog yawn, though it's possible he was just bored.

By: sadie01221975

sadie01221975 — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 13:53:04 -0800

i can make my cat yawn on cue by pretending to yawn.

By: bob sarabia

bob sarabia — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 23:50:42 -0800

By: Talez

Talez — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 06:09:50 -0800

Guys, guys, this is Metafilter's own asavage. We own him. How cool is that? I dunno... He's been on this forum all this time and he hasn't been able to get one of us a date with Kari Byron? :D But seriously, yeah, you gotta wonder sometimes how small the world really is.