The latest yawn inducing Youtube post on Metafilter.

September 25, 2006 1:12 AM

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.
posted by Effigy2000 (33 comments total)

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.
posted by scallion at 1:21 AM on September 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

Yes, for what it's worth, I didn't yawn either. Maybe the footage was just far too exciting!
posted by Effigy2000 at 1:25 AM on September 25, 2006

I think I need audio in order for this to work.
posted by spacelux at 1:38 AM on September 25, 2006

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.
posted by antifuse at 2:45 AM on September 25, 2006

If this global megayawn was combined with World Jump Day, all the world's problems would be fixed in an instant. Probably.
posted by jack_mo at 2:47 AM on September 25, 2006

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.
posted by Derek at 2:58 AM on September 25, 2006

studies have found that the more compassionate and empathetic you are, the more apt you are to yawn in response to the stimuli fyi
posted by naxosaxur at 3:20 AM on September 25, 2006

When you yawn it's your soul that tries to flee from your body.
posted by darkripper at 3:21 AM on September 25, 2006

Taking into account how contagious yawning is, this dangerous experiment may well have a negative impact on world econoydff *zzzz* *zzzz*
posted by uncle harold at 3:43 AM on September 25, 2006

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.
posted by Chunder at 3:58 AM on September 25, 2006

Dang I yawned just reading this thing! 'Course it's 0730 here.
posted by benATthelocust at 4:32 AM on September 25, 2006

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.
posted by Hildegarde at 4:50 AM on September 25, 2006

dang, yawned twice just reading this far through the thread....
posted by pax digita at 5:06 AM on September 25, 2006

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...
posted by Smart Dalek at 5:14 AM on September 25, 2006

Well I suppose it makes a change, Mythbusters deliberately making you yawn.
posted by MrMustard at 5:21 AM on September 25, 2006

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.)
posted by god hates math at 6:10 AM on September 25, 2006

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?)
posted by [insert clever name here] at 6:21 AM on September 25, 2006

Please stop making me yawn, it makes the Coffee God angry.
posted by ob at 6:22 AM on September 25, 2006 [1 favorite]

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.
posted by Eideteker at 6:50 AM on September 25, 2006

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.
posted by bob sarabia at 7:07 AM on September 25, 2006

yawn.
posted by tadellin at 7:13 AM on September 25, 2006

so... is that pronounced Ass-Savage?
posted by wumpus at 7:15 AM on September 25, 2006

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.
posted by UbuRoivas at 7:31 AM on September 25, 2006

I didn't yawn at the video. And I read all these comments AND still didn't yawn.
posted by artifarce at 10:10 AM on September 25, 2006

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>
posted by goodnewsfortheinsane at 10:13 AM on September 25, 2006

No yawn.

Maybe Adam just doesn't inspire much empathy.
posted by elfgirl at 10:45 AM on September 25, 2006

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.
posted by quin at 10:49 AM on September 25, 2006

Stop! All the yawning creates excess CO2 in the atmosphere! I think we just lost another ice shelf!
posted by fungible at 10:50 AM on September 25, 2006

Guys, guys, this is Metafilter's own asavage. We own him. How cool is that?
posted by Eideteker at 11:14 AM on September 25, 2006

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.
posted by gigawhat? at 12:37 PM on September 25, 2006

i can make my cat yawn on cue by pretending to yawn.
posted by sadie01221975 at 1:53 PM on September 25, 2006

posted by bob sarabia at 11:50 PM on September 25, 2006

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.
posted by Talez at 6:09 AM on September 26, 2006