Lateral with Tom Scott - 78: Sneaky statutory statues

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

Ruth Amos & Shawn Brown from 'Kids Invent Stuff' and Daniel Peake face questions about play programmes, dreary drives and captured caps. LATERAL is a comedy panel game podcast about weird questions with wonderful answers, hosted by Tom Scott. For business enquiries, contestant appearances or question submissions, visit https://lateralcast.com. HOST: Tom Scott. QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe. RECORDED AT: The Podcast Studios, Dublin. EDITED BY: Julie Hassett. MUSIC: Karl-Ola Kjellholm ('Private Detective'/'Agrumes', courtesy of epidemicsound.com). ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS: Noa, Christopher & Deborah Henney-Turner, Max Kief, Sara. FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd. EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott. © Pad 26 Limited (https://www.pad26.com) / Labyrinth Games Ltd. 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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not combinable. In 2011, which organization ran a full-page advert in Playbill programs, headlined, Our version is slightly different? The answer to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott, and this is Lateral. to that at the end of the show. My name's Tom Scott and this is Lateral. In a world that's constantly changing, how can we stay grounded? My advice is always touch a metal doorknob. Joining me today are three very down-to-earth individuals. We start with a puzzle editor from The Telegraph, Dan Peake. Welcome back to the show. Hey, thank you very much for having me again. Welcome back. How was it last time?

I slid from forgetting important words at important times. I got very excited when I realised an answer that I didn't know any of the words to tell you is. It was really good fun. Your questions are tricky. You did tricky questions. You write puzzles and clues and such for a living like is this the sort of thing you write what what are you working on at the minute i'm more general knowledge i do i write the pub quiz for the telegraph i do a lot of general knowledge crosswords a couple of my colleagues they tend to do like the cryptic crosswords and that sort of thing i do check them as well but i'm slightly more you more straight down the line. So lateral thinking is always that one step removed.

And I love that I get to exercise my brain muscle like that for a change. Good luck to you. We have three returning players on the show, and the other two really do know each other quite well. We will start with one half of Kids Invent Stuff. Ruth Amos, how are you doing? Hey, I'm good, thank you. Thanks for having us back.

Always a joy to have you. How was it for you last time on the show? Oh, I loved it. I loved it. And although I did have a lot of people who were kind of telling me they got the answer straight away and how did I not get them fast enough? So yeah, there was that. Yeah. Oh, everyone claims that. And yet, what they don't know is if more than one person immediately knows the answer, we do just throw the question out. So I feel like they get a higher hit rate there. Also joining us, the other half of Kids Invent Stuff,

Sean Brown, welcome back. Hello, thank you for having us back. I realise I should ask you at some point to plug Kids Invent Stuff. Like, what are you working on at the minute? So yes, we build primary school kids inventions on our youtube channel they draw them send them to us every month we pick one and we build one um but our most recent project is we do a thing called youtube makers secret santa where a whole load of youtube makers from around the world make gifts for each other and um yeah we've been in the thick of um getting our gift ready to send as a surprise to

somebody um so that's um yeah that's our fun youtube endeavor at the moment well good luck to Yeah, we've been in the thick of getting our gift ready to send as a surprise to somebody. So that's our fun YouTube endeavour at the moment. Well, good luck to all three of you. As usual, our questions have been carefully assembled by throwing a magnetic poetry set at the fridge door. So let's see if we've gotten lucky again with our first puzzle. This question was sent in by Christopher and Deborah Henney-Turner. Thank you very much. Some have claimed that Sylvester saved his companion's life by swearing.

How? I'll say that one more time. Some have claimed that Sylvester saved his companion's life by swearing. How? I guess we should try and work out who this Sylvester is. That would probably be helpful.

I know how this show works now. Reverse engineer. So what swear words do we know? What are we allowed to say on the podcast? Because we're not allowed to say anything on our channel. I previously had one question which had an unavoidable bleeped swear in the answer. And joyfully, this is similar, but it will be bleeped. Interesting.

Oh, so we could just swear. We can just swear. Just non-stop. Non-stop for you to bleep it. I'd rather you didn't. It means more work for our team, but in theory, sure. We also just had Stuart Goldsmith on the show an episode ago, and I once saw him doing warm-up for a studio audience,

and he found one of the kids in the audience, and in front of the parent just asked them, what's the rudest word you know? Which is just brilliant crowd work. And what did he say? I cannot repeat that right now. So a good kid then? Yeah, absolutely.

Sylvester. The first Sylvester that I can think of is Sylvester the Cat. Yeah, I went there and then I went Sylvester Stallone. Yeah, I went Sylvester Stallone. Yeah, I went Sylvester Stallone. I can't speak went Sylvester Stallone yeah I went Sylvester Stallone yeah I went Sylvester Stallone I can't speak Sylvester Stallone so who would his

companion be if it is a cat and the cat talks I've not actually ever seen Sylvester the cat I'm gonna oh really that's a

the one with little Tweety Pie always trying to eat the little bird oh yes I have seen that okay yeah yeah yeah Tweety Pie seen that one yeah I know the. Oh, yes, I have seen that. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tweety Pie, seen that one. Yeah. I know the Looney Tunes

are steadily becoming less relevant over time, but I think Sylvester's still well enough known there. It's not that Sylvester. Okay. You have all missed one Sylvester.

Another famous Sylvester. Notorious for use of swear words. Oh, no, not really. But there is a subset of our audience that's screaming the answer here based on a couple of keywords. Doesn't apply to every question, though. More so than this,

and they will be insufferable about it. Or as Sylvester would say, infufferable. You were about to get us in trouble on the social media, aren't you, Tom? Because this is what happened last time, is you gave us one that a subsection of your audience knew very well,

and I just was full of people telling me that they should have got it quicker. Is it like Sylvester who's some wizard or something? Not a wizard, no. Although, vaguely, yes. The word companion is also doing quite a lot of hard work. Oh, Sylvester McCoy. There we go.

Who played a doctor in Doctor Who. Oh! And doctors have companions. Yes. Oh, you've got us in so much trouble, Tom. Don't pin this on me. Do not pin this one on me. Okay, so how do you save your life by swearing? Oh, is there a swear word that

sounds like the word duck? I mean, yes. I'm not sure. No, I know, but I don't want to say it. I don't want to give you more work to do. So did someone shout that word and they thought it was duck and they ducked and it saved their life? That's a lovely guess. It's not though. It should be the answer. Anyone that writes for Doctor Who, if you'd like to add that in, I think that'll go down really well. Oh, if any Doctor Who writers are listening to this,

please just add some swearing in there. Just really... For future questions. Yeah, yeah. Who was Sylvester McCoy's companion? Was it Ace? It was, yes. This is Sophie Aldred's Ace.

So was this, did this happen on set? Yes. So something happened on set, he swore, and she would have died if not, or herself? How severe is the injury? Oh, you know how directors say cut when they want to end a scene? Are we going towards there? Did someone think they heard cuts so they stopped acting no that's a very different swear word and it's not okay right good but but but but

what would swearing imply what would it tell to people around like if he behaved normally what might have happened i guess if you're if you're acting and the doctors are quite quirky characters, you wouldn't necessarily know that he was in pain or you were in pain or something had gone wrong. So did he actually have to break character and this was the way to do it? That is exactly right. It was so people knew he wasn't acting. So what's going on around him? Why do people say he might have saved a life here? Did he step on some Lego? Crucial.

Was there something like, I don't know, some explosion, like rubble falling or something like that? Yeah, you know what, you're close enough, I'm going to give it to you. There was a stunt going on with a glass tank that's filling up with water. And he noticed that the outside of the tank was starting to buckle. a stunt going on with a glass tank that's filling up with water and he'd noticed that the outside of the tank was starting to buckle, like the compounding is trapped inside there, apparently. He's noticing something's going wrong and his exact words were

S***, get her out! The intention being that yeah, it's really clear, the doctor does not drop swearing into his lines, even if he's improv clear. The Doctor does not drop swearing into his lines, even if he's improvising. So the clue was to the production team,

no, this is not the Doctor. This is Sylvester saying, get her out of there, it's going to buckle. Some of the production team later said that, actually, she wasn't in that much danger. She'd have been fine. Who was? The Doctor.

Always. The Doctor is always in peril. Or the crew. The crew. Whoever was in The Doctor. Always. The Doctor is always in peril. Or the crew. The crew. Whoever was in the water. Yeah, water, electricity. They don't do well. The rest of the crew on the studio floor were probably in more danger than the actress was at that point.

Still can't be pleasant. So some Doctor Who fans say that Sylvester McCoy saved his companion's life, saved Sophie Aldred's life, by swearing and cluing everyone in that that's not acting, that tank is actually buckling. Each of our guests, as ever, has brought a question with them. I don't know the questions, I definitely don't know the answers, and we'll start today with Ruth. Ooh, exciting. I get to go first. Fab. Okay. And I will say that our two people from Kids Invent Stuff are in different locations right now.

They cannot see each other's stuff. Yeah, I haven't seen any of the questions that have been sent in to Sean and vice versa. Okay, so the company, Aquamazing, manufactures a roughly rectangular novelty item with an intricate brown pattern. How could it potentially answer a question that has been bugging audiences for over 25 years? The company, Aqua Amazing, I hope I'm saying that right, but yeah, think of Aqua and Amazing, manufactures a roughly rectangular novelty item with an intricate brown pattern. How could it potentially answer a question

that's been bugging audiences for over 25 years? I just realised that 25 years ago is nearly like the year 2000. Not quite, but I didn't like doing that maths and figuring out that 25 years ago nearly starts with a two anyone feeling old 25 years ago is like the 80s right yeah yeah absolutely please aquamazing this isn't strictly relevant but it's just stuck in my head on like portmanteau words like that that uh in Canada all the packaging on the side of products has to be in both English

and French. And cheesetastic got translated to French as fromidable, which is beautiful. Oh, that's amazing. Someone made a translation that's a portmanteau that's better than the original. That's so rare. And as a portmanteau goes, aquamazing is not that aquamazing. Oh! Which is a shame because in French, omazing would be brilliant. Oh! So it feels like water is somehow involved, aqua... Feels like... Unless someone is a big fan of the colour blue. Roughly rectangular, brown with a pattern on it.

The first thing I thought of was chocolate, which has nothing to do with water. I was like, novelty item chocolate's pretty novelty. Brown pattern, I'm thinking like, you know, dairy milk. But the only problem or thing that's kind of frustrated people that I think of chocolate is the thing where you cut it and remove a piece, but then you can put it perfectly back together.

But that's a very niche thing to develop a product for. Someone's been practising. I was thinking bath bombs, for some reason. Like those things made of citric acid and whatever. By carbon monosodium, I think you'd drop in a bath and put fizz and colours

and things. I was thinking roughly rectangular brown and aqua think, that you'd drop in a bath and put fizz and colours and things. I was thinking roughly rectangular brown and aqua, like something you'd drop in a bath. I don't want a brown bath. I realised the minute I opened my mouth to that that actually brown is not a colour I want with that. No! No! Oh, dear. Maybe Aqua Amazing, like, have branched out.

They started off doing water-based solutions and now they've kind of cast the net wider. Maybe we're being lulled by the name. I can confirm. No, it is a water-based thing. The Aqua Amazing leads you on the right track. It's not trying to trick you. Because, you know, Apple don't sell apples. Okay, some kind of pool equipment, a floaty thing,

something that goes in a swimming pool. But again, roughly rectangular and brown? And also, that's been bugging audiences while we're in a theatre setting. Oh yeah, audiences. What? This is what I do on this show. I just say what and eventually the clues you give to me finally give me the answer but at the moment i'm fully in what territory would you would you like

a clue no no no we will get this no we won't i'll happily take the hint yeah fair enough okay I'm trying to think of because I feel like some of these clues you'll just get it so one of its four sides four sides is jagged and irregular huh so because I was thinking rectangular

are we dealing with like something like a note like a 20 pound note a £20 note? Oh, you're right. I will get that immediately off that clue. Oh. Oh. This is a company that sells pool floats in a very specific shape, isn't it?

And it's a shape that we've all seen somewhere. It's a very specific shape. It is, yes. And it answers people's questions that they've had for a long time. Yeah. I'll let others put it together if you haven't. Well, I don't know what the questions it answers is, but I think I know what shape it must now be.

No, I don't know. I've got an idea. I can give you another clue that will probably help you in the right direction. Well, here's what I'm possibly thinking in terms of shape. Is it in the shape of a shark fin? Oh, wrong movie. Definitely the wrong movie. Okay.

Because I had the jagged edge. I was wondering if that was like the teeth. No, a fin does not have teeth. Hang on. I'm getting my shark anatomy mixed up here. I never want to see any part of a shark. You're looking for something flat and brown that maybe looks a little bit wooden.

Is this to do with Titanic? Yes, it is. It's got to be. Yes, it is. Yes, it is. There was enough room. Is that where we're going? Yes, that is where we're going.

That is exactly where we're going. So the answer is it was created to see if both Rose and Jack could fit on the Titanic door door so it's a novelty well so this is it okay much debate has raged over whether jack could have fitted on the door while rose um floats because she's on it isn't she and he's in the water yeah so much so that in 2023 director james James Cameron recreated the scene with two actors in a pool. It seemed that they couldn't both fit on the door

without it partially sinking into the frozen waters. And that is what Kate Winslet had previously said, that yes, he could have fit on the door, but it would not have stayed afloat. So I don't know if this product actually solves that problem or not, because it's a very floaty product. I feel like James Cameron should have put just a note in the movie. It's not like they could have that in dialogue,

but they should have tried it for a moment. They should have figured it out. If it was a YouTube video, there'd literally be text on the screen at that point, right? Because you know they're the comments you're going to get. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Little fact-checked movies in real time. Or you wouldn't, because you'd know that's what comments you're going to get. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Little fact-checked movies in real time. Or you wouldn't because you'd know that's what the comments were going to be

and it would create interaction. So, you know, you could look at it both ways. Yeah. So Aqua Amazing manufactured a blow-up door to see if both Rose and Jack could fit on the Titanic door. If you like quizzes and trivia, then today's ad is for you. It's an invitation to join the many lateral listeners who are already part of BP Trivia's quiz leagues.

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This question comes from Max Keefe. Thank you very much, Max. On the 26th of November, 2003, after his last flight on a particular aircraft, why was flight engineer Trevor Norcott unable to take his cap home, even if he wanted to? One more time. On the 26th of November, 2003,

after his last flight on a particular aircraft, why was flight engineer Trevor Norcott unable to take his cap home even if he wanted to? These beheading accidents are nasty, you know. I'm assuming his head was firmly attached to his neck at the end of flight. Yes, we occasionally do have dark questions on here. This is not one of the dark questions. This is not one of them. No, I don't know that much about flying rituals or traditions, but I have seen there is,

and I don't know if it's just an American tradition, where when you do your first solo flight they cut your shirt or your top or something. That was actually a question on a previous episode of Lateral that, as we record this, has not aired yet. Congratulations. Oh, thank you. I should have been on that one. You would be excellent at that question. Yep. Brilliant. Unfortunately, not the answer to this one.

Oh, I just wondered if it was something similar. Like, is there a tradition on your last flight that you feed your... I mean, you wouldn't feed it into parts of the engine that would... Because, yeah, all I can think of is bird strike, but with your hat. And I'm like, I'm sure that's not good for the aircraft. You are not a million miles away, but you're also definitely not next door to it either. Okay, okay.

What was the year again, Tom? 2003. Is that around the time Concorde stopped? It was around the time Concorde stopped. Interesting. I think the last Concord flight was like an internal flight to either the uk and it landed at bristol or it was to somewhere like lyon in france where they've got a big museum there where a lot of uh concord was developed so it'll be

out to one of those two places but that does not help. It doesn't, but it is the flight to Bristol Airport. Yes. Yeah, because they've got a big Concord Museum there. Never been to Bristol for a while. Never went. Meant to. Fun story. The thing is, if you'd been to the museum,

you actually might know the answer to this one. Is his hat in the museum? Is his hat in the museum? His hat is in the museum, yes. Is that the answer to this one. Is his hat in the museum? Is his hat in the museum? His hat is in the museum, yes. Is that why he can't take it home? Because someone stole it and put it in the museum? Very British thing to do. We're very good at that. Like the British

Museum, yes. We've taken your cap. It's our cap now. So he was a pilot on the last Concorde flight. He was the flight engineer, yes. Flight engineer. So not the pilot then?

No. I don't know what a flight engineer is, it turns out. I believe Concorde is one of the old school airplanes that needs to have someone monitoring all the dials and things while pilot and co-pilot actually fly. Basically systems engineer. But so his hat is around because it's in the museum, but he can't take it home? He couldn't take it home at the end of the flight, no.

Had there been a problem on the flight? No, all went normal. Like, no, no, no blinky light. Just put my hat on it. No blinky light. How much do you know about Concorde, how it flies, how it works? I'd talk through what happens with a Concorde flight. Pilot says go, plane goes up. I feel like this might be one for the engineers in the room. That is not me.

I mean, the forces of the whole plane encounters are off the scale. It burns a heck of a lot more fuel, which was actually mentioned in the news this week in relation to the COP and various groups who were trying to encourage the consumption of oil products. And the idea was, yeah, supersonic, encouraging supersonic flights might be a way to do that. But in relation, I can't really work out how any any of the the specifics relating all the specifics about how it flies it

worries me if someone needs involves their hat because now i'm like unless unless you like i don't know i can't even think of a way of it's not the sort of thing you took out of a window out of concord do you mean that's not usually how it's done. No, but you might put it somewhere. On the nose. No. Oh, wow. No. I was like, no. No. I mean, I would pay for that flight. Sorry. Yeah. Can't go. The hat's not on the nose. Wing walking, but on Concorde.

It would be amazing. But no, we've talked about it used a lot of fuel. What other engineering challenges are there with travelling that speed? It was known for expanding and contracting quite a bit, wasn't it? Yes. Why? Because it was going so fast that the friction of the plane sort of literally expanded. And so therefore, it was a good few inches bigger in the sky than it was at rest. Is that big enough to get your hat in somewhere?

Yes. His hat got stuck in Concorde. I will give you that. He deliberately placed his hat on what he knew was going to be the final flight in one of the expansion joints in the cabin.

Oh. So what happened to it? And it exploded as it contracted. It became a flat cap. Hey! It became known as the cap in the gap. Amazing. And can you see any of the cap?

Is there, like, part of it coming out of that gap? He just kind of tucked it. It's a very small expansion joint. So as Concorde comes into land, what happens? Oh, it cools down. And yeah, everything tightens up, closes the gap.

And the cap gets, they thought, permanently stuck in there because Concorde was never going to take off again. At some point, the cap came loose and it's now in the airport museum. You can see it. But yes, this is the cap in the gap,

which was placed there because flight engineer Trevor Norcott thought, that's not coming out of there. Dan, over to you for the next one. Are we fans of the year 388 BC, everybody? Oh, it's one of my favourites. Huge fans. I know, right? So you'll have no trouble with this.

In 388 BC, the boxer Eupolus of Thessaly defeated three opponents at the ancient Olympics. Funded by the men involved, several bronze statues of Zeus were erected with inscriptions detailing the events. Why did the four men prefer not to have the statues around? So in 388 BC, the boxer eupolis of thessaly defeated three opponents at the ancient olympics funded by the men involved several bronze statues of zeus were erected with inscriptions detailing the events why did the four men prefer not to have the statues around because they were ugly. So the statues were commemorating their loss or like the other guys win.

Is that what you're saying? Because you were sort of saying that the people who were involved funded the statues. So they were the people who lost, presumably. Yeah. Were they like statues of Zeus in their likeness? I mean, Zeus took many forms. So he could have been a swan in this. I don't know.

The statues no longer exist. So we don't know what they look like, but we do know what the statues were for. So can we lay out the story? So essentially, there was a fight. Three people lost. Did I get

that right? Yeah. And who paid for the statues? All four of them. Did they pay for the statues before the fight? No. That's a commemoration. All right.

What was Zeus the god of? Zeus was the leader slash father of the gods, right? Top of the pantheon. Was Zeus the equivalent of Thor? I can't remember how the... Oh, god of thunder? Odin is the supreme Norse god. Right.

Never mind. But focusing on Zeus is a little bit of a red herring here. Okay. But it's not about how they look, the statues. No, I'd argue that it's not. It's about what was said? Yeah. If this turns out to be a pun in ancient Greek...

None of us have the classics knowledge for that. Did they describe the fight as aquamazing? And they were like, what? Nah, terrible. Great translation of that into ancient Greek, like it fits perfectly. I just, I don't know how to pronounce it interestingly sean no just for a second just for a second you sold that so well well played is it to do with the writing is there an issue with the writing of it or is it the statue side of it yeah you you said commemorate what do you mean yeah did someone die no one died did someone lose their body parts were there particular things lost in the fight and the men

didn't feel like men anymore oh wow that's i've written my whole story in my head no oh so you're thinking of commemoration and commemoration tends to be like, oh, this is a really good thing that's happened. And celebrating something. This is not that. Is it a warning? Don't get in the boxing ring with this jackass. He'll knock your limbs off.

It's not a statue of celebration. Huh. Is it like Zeus stood on all three of the men that lost? No, but I will say that the authorities were very happy. The authorities wanted these statues put up. The authorities thought it was a good idea. Oh, were they like wanted?

Like a wanted poster in ancient times? Oh, I'd love that. I'd love that to be the equivalent of wanted. Your sort of is going to be my answer there. Oh, wow. Okay. I was going to say it was just a general warning against boxing. Like, don't do this. Like, boxing is illegal in these Olympics. And part of the event is evading the Greek police. I don't know where I was going with that. So the word warning is good here, but it's not a warning against boxing. It would be a warning against angering the gods.

Oh, that's good, but it's not right. All right, Roy Walker. So you have assumed that everything that happened in the ring should have happened in the ring. You have assumed something everything that happened in the ring should have happened in the ring. You have assumed something about the fighting. Oh, that it was fair? So was the fighting not fair? Uh-huh.

Did someone cheat? Did someone keep fighting after they were down or outside the ring? Or they just never got to the ring because you just punched them outside it and the statues of Zeus are worn against cheating in the Olympics. You're very close. Keep following that thought. Hold on. This question is phrased very carefully, right? The boxer defeated three opponents. It did not say he defeated them in a boxing ring, at boxing. Is this some other sport, some other event, something else? Oh my...

Was it a statue competition? Was it a competition in the ancient Olympics to create the best statue of Zeus? That's so good, but no. Oh, I thought I got that. That was good. We are definitely dealing with boxing, and in a way you're overcomplicating it.

The fight we were saying was not fair. You were wondering, Tom, if one of them had potentially cheated. Just follow that thread. One of them had just hidden a bronze statue of Zeus in his boxing glove and was just using it as a weapon. Not quite. I'd love to see that. But not one of them had cheated.

All of them cheated? Was it like a fix? All of them had cheated. All four. So he defeated them, but he had bribed the other three to win. A match-fixing thing. It's match-fixing in the ancient Olympics in 388 BC.

So if that's the case, why did they pay for the statues? A punishment? Exactly. The authorities fined all four of them. Right. And that is why they didn't want the statues, because the statues were commemorating the cheating. And essentially, the inscriptions on the statues,

the statues were of Zeus. That's because he was the supreme Greek god, and so the statues were just for him. But it was the inscriptions which were saying things like, victory is to be gained, not by money, but by actually being good at things, the fleetness of foot and strength of body. General punishment details were on one of the other statue inscriptions. Don't give money to gain an Olympic victory was one of the others.

So what we're dealing with is human nature and people wanting to win by paying money in 388 BC. I mean, it's a great story, but I liked Tom's better. So if we could just rewrite it, that'd be great. Our next question was sent in by Sarah from Canberra. Thank you, Sarah. Caitlin lives in the town of Mungondi in Queensland, Australia. She recalls a time when she had to drive for a four-hour road trip to do her food shopping, yet her nearest supermarket is only five minutes away. Why? I'll say that again.

Caitlin lives in the town of Mungendie in Queensland, Australia. She recalls a time when she had to drive for a four-hour road trip to do her food shopping, yet her nearest supermarket is only five minutes away. Why? She was a vegan, but her supermarket only sold beef. Honestly, it's Australia. The all-beef supermarket does not sound completely outside my list of stereotypes. Beef and kangaroo. I mean, was it closed? The nearest one was five minutes away, but it happened to be shut that day?

Yeah, only opened on special holidays. It was open. Did it not stock the correct items needed? Perfectly normal supermarket. Was there some sort of she wasn't

able to use that supermarket? Yes. That one, despite being open and five minutes away, is not for her. I'm going to assume there's some blockage in between her and the supermarket. There is no physical way to get there. I think that is the only reason why you would go for four hours

rather than a five-minute drive. Yes. Oh, there's like a canyon or something in the way. I don't know the geography of Australia. No, I know nothing. I know nothing about Australia. I'm just thinking in my head.

Is this a one-off? Because you said, oh, I remember a time when. That is doing quite a lot of heavy lifting in this question. Okay. Is there now like a bridge or a road that's been built? Was it like...

No, it was just a normal town. Although the geography does make a difference here. I'm thinking floods. If it's in the northern part of Australia, they get cyclones every now and then. So is it something to do with flooding that has caused inaccessibility something like that it's not you are looking for a specific time period here is it to do with um

like uh kind of borders or like um a particular like a divide um yes is it um is it some kind of segregation or some kind of separation between two districts or regions? Yes, definitely. I've recently watched Ten Pound Palm. Is it to do with the fact that she was from Britain or somewhere and the original Australians didn't like that? Sean is much closer. Now, you've said road trip. I hope that's immediately put me in the mind of cars. Are we dealing with actual cars here, or are we dealing with, like, wagons?

Oh, actual cars. Actual cars, okay. Actual cars, yeah. Was there, like, some illness? Was there, like, I don't know, I'm thinking about COVID, so, like, she couldn't go five minutes there because COVID was rife. Put that together with what Sean said. I think Dan's actually just got this by the look on his face.

No, that's just the look on my face. Okay. Ruth, Sean, between you, you've basically got it. So it's some kind of quarantine between particular states or particular regions. Yeah, I'm going to give that to you. Munga dies on the border between Queensland and New South Wales. So what happened during COVID, particularly in Australia? So they did testing, didn't they?

They were quite hot on their testing. Australia went a lot further than that. Yeah, they had some really severe lockdowns, didn't they? And they differed by state. So there was a hard border between Queensland and New South Wales and even if there was no other town for four hours,

you could not cross the border to get to the supermarket on the other side of town. Wow. Crazy. In today's economy, saving money is like an extreme sport. Coupon clipping.

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Okay, so this is a question that has been sent in by Noah. And the question is, in 2007, three young Chinese women were prevented from leaving south korea even though they had all the correct documentation and had not done anything wrong why was that and in 2007 three young chinese women were prevented from leaving south korea even though they had all the correct documentation and they had not done anything wrong why was that okay it's not covid it's 2007 it's not complex bungee cords they tried get being pinged back i like the practical physical um it's not the correct answer but i like it not it's not sadly did they think they were spies yeah you'd kick them out if that was the case, surely.

After an interrogation or two. Oh, true. But they hadn't done anything wrong. Maybe they were suspected of doing something wrong, but even then, I feel like the question is like, no, this is a weirder reason. Am I right in thinking there's no border shared between South Korea and China?

So it would have to be... No, there's not. North Korea is in the way. Yeah. The clues in South are North there, really, isn't it? So this is probably going to have to be taking part at an airport or something like that. Airport or ferry port, I'd guess, yeah.

Does it say where it's taking place, Sean? No, not specifically. Okay. They had the right to travel on the route that they wanted. Did they ever get to travel on the route they wanted? Yes, eventually. I guess it could also be trains as well, thinking about it. Were they carrying illegal things, like that border control program?

Oh, yeah. But we know they haven't done anything wrong and that would be on arrival. They've always packed food. They've always packed food. They know not to bring food in. If they're too young to travel on their own, they might have documentation that allows them to leave, but they might not have an adult that is allowed to leave with them. Maybe their mother was taken ill or something, so isn't around to be able to shepherd them onto the train or plane or something like that. That could be a thing. Oh, I can just see them now. I know.

So they're waiting. I'm just hearing, I know that it says they were Chinese and this is in South Korea, but in my head, they're like K-pop stars and the crowd is just stopping them physically leaving because they are such fans of them and do not want them to go. But I think I've got the countries the wrong way round for that. K-pop is not relevant to the question, I'll clarify that. K-pop is never relevant to the question. We should do something about that. You should have a whole episode that's just K-pop themed.

We haven't done themed episodes yet. It'll happen at some point. The women have chosen to go to South Korea for a specific reason. To get pregnant. I don't know. I'm trying to think. You don't need to go to South Korea for that. For medical things.

I don't know. I'm trying to think. Why do people travel? Oh, for some ridiculous trial, drugs trial or something, or, like, medical intervention. You weren't far away. If you are flying, then one of the things you can't do in the 24, 48 hours before that is, like, scuba dive or do something like that because the pressure difference is too great and you could end up with an injury.

I suspect not many people go to South Korea for scuba diving, but could it be like some medical thing that they've done that means they can't get on the plane, that it's for their own safety rather than something they've done? So you, Ruth and Tom, you're both warm with this idea of a sort of a medical aspect, but they weren't divers, Tom. But is it for their own safety? Like this is... No.

Oh, okay. Safety of others on the plane. Have they done something or been like exposed to something? Not quite. Not quite. But your train of thought is heading in the right direction, I believe. I think we're going to need another hint here, Sean. Actually, this does clarify the earlier question.

Airport staff, so we are in an airport, were unable to carry out one very specific stage of their job. Were they wearing something they shouldn't have been wearing? Or that meant they couldn't get frisked or in that weird machine? Had they left their hat in a few, in a, in a Concorde? No, they couldn't prove their identity for some reason. They couldn't tell. Their faces, they had facelifts.

Well, I was going for fingers, but faces is better. Absolutely spot on. They'd gone to South Korea for plastic surgery. The faces had changed so much that airport staff didn't think they were the same people. No, Tom, I need to explain to you for plastic surgery, the faces had changed so much that airport staff didn't think they were the same people? No, Tom, I need to explain to you about plastic surgery. It takes a long time to recover. They'll be bandaged. You won't know what

your new face looks like. This isn't face-off. I don't know how this works. As you can tell from my face. You've absolutely smashed it, yeah. So they had recently had cosmetic surgery and their faces were so swollen and covered in bandages they could not be identified.

Yeah, there could be anyone. Yeah, yeah. So they could leave eventually. So yes, they had flown to South Korea to take advantage of the country's burgeoning plastic surgery industry. So their faces were swollen and they were covered in bandages. And the border agents found it difficult to verify the identities of the three women. And in 2009, a very similar situation occurred when 23 Chinese women tried to fly home after operations that changed their appearances.

fly home after operations that changed their appearances. And it's estimated that 20% of Korean women under 50 have had some kind of cosmetic surgery. That feels like a Tom Scott video. Oh no, you don't do those anymore. No, it doesn't feel like one of mine there. Mind you, I've had cosmetic surgery. I've got scar reduction just here because I got a nasty hit many years ago. You know, here's how long it's been. I pointed to the wrong side of my face there. It was very good scar reduction to the point where you can't remember what side of your face you got damaged. Was it more than 25 years?

Was it like maybe around the year 2000? Which means there is just the audience question from the start of the show. In 2011, which organisation ran a full-page advert in Playbill programmes headlined Our version is slightly different. And there are four I's in that slightly. That's not actually a key part of the question. I just thought I wasn't just emphasising that.

It is slightly and not slightly. Playbill is theatres and stuff like that, is it? Yes. So I'm assuming it's something that's a tweak on something else. Oh, hang on. Okay, I've got an idea. Yep. Wicked? Not

quite. Because it's like The Wizard of Oz, but it's different. But you're definitely along the right lines. If you have a think about... So it's like a film that's a difference in the Broadway version? The West End version? The theatre version? The Broadway adaptation of this

is very different from the original. I'd go so far to say honestly they just have the same name. Have they... I'd like to see what they do to Sesame Street. That's called Avenue Q, and it's done quite well. Yes, yes, yes.

Book of Mormon. Book of Mormon. Book of Mormon. Yes, so who was taking out the advert? Oh, the Mormons. The actual Mormons, yes. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints actually took out an advert in Playbill

for the Book of Mormon because they put customised versions out as the programmes, saying that their version was slightly different. Oh, that's lovely. Doesn't surprise me though, but yes. With that, thank you very much to all of our players for battling through those questions.

What's going on in your lives? Where can people find you? We will start with... Oh, it's going to be one of you. Ruth, Sean, who wants to take it? Go through it, Ruth. So yeah, you can find us building kids' invention ideas over on Kids Invent Stuff. Sean, what sort of ideas?

Ooh, we've built things like giant carrot-shaped electric cars that fire seeds, We've built things like giant carrot-shaped electric cars that fire seeds, the world's first sneeze-activated flamethrower, and a seven-year-old's idea for a giant rocket that hangs over the breakfast table that dispenses jam onto your toast. Incredible. And Dan, where can people find you if they want to see your puzzles? I can't follow that. I do nothing as interesting as that, but you can find me on Twitch. I'm Quizzy Dan, and I do various quizzes, games, and puzzles a few evenings a week. I do nothing as interesting as that, but you can find me on Twitch.

I'm Quizzy Dan and I do various quizzes, games and puzzles a few evenings a week. I do a few streams. And if you want to know more about this

show, you can do that at lateralcast.com where you can also send in your own ideas for questions. We are at youtube.com

slash lateralcast several times a week and at lateralcast basically everywhere. Thank you very much to all of our players. Thank you to

Dan Peake. Thank you very much. Ruth Am our players. Thank you to Dan Peake. Thank you very much. Ruth Amos. Thanks for having me. And Sean Brown. Thanks for having me too. I've been Tom Scott and that's been

Lateral.