Brainiac: Science Abuse - Experiments

Experiments

The presenters perform unusual experiments or demonstration procedures "so you don't have to". The destruction of caravans is a recurring theme in many of the episodes. These experiments are often non-scientific and are undertaken in the interests of entertainment (many involving large explosions) rather than any science. The show does however do a reasonable job of demonstrating some simple concepts of experimental design.

• Liquid Nitrogen/Liquid Oxygen Time: Vic Reeves does an impression of a soviet scientist named Uri Abusikov, along with his wife Ursula—who is seven feet tall and covered in hair—inserting an object into liquid nitrogen or oxygen to see what happens to it. The character is made as a remarkably similar look-alike to the former leader of USSR Leonid Brezhnev.
• Attempting to destroy a black box/Safe-cracking, a flight data recorder or safe is subjected to various abuses attempting to destroy it, such as having a group of American Civil War re-enactors open fire with rifles and cannons, dunking it in a vat of acid, and spraying it with napalm and finally succumbing to a rubbish tip compacter used to crush cars.
• Pub Science – performing experiments in a pub with ordinary items. Invariably this results in the experimenter (Dr Bunhead) being thrown out by security staff and subsequently banned.
• At Home with Dr Bunhead – household mayhem usually involving some explosive chemical reaction.
• You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll – a boombox is subjected to various forms of violence (such as having a caravan dropped on it, smashed up with various sports bats, shooting it with a dual-pellet shotgun, thrown with a hammer thrower and being burned with a flamethrower) until it ceases to play a tape of the Twisted Sister song of the same name. Not a single note of You Can't Stop Rock 'n' Roll was ever actually played in versions outside of the UK, and only the vocal hook of "You can't stop rock 'n' roll!" is repeated in the in-UK editions of the episode. The tape never survives.
• Dear Jon: A segment in which members of the public write to Jon Tickle about questions they want answered. e.g. Is dog food healthier than fast food?
• Things, but very slowly: A segment in which simple things are displayed in super slow-motion such as the popping of a water balloon and the ignition of a disposable lighter.
• How Hard is your thing: A segment in which Thaila Zucchi tests the hardness of various objects. She uses three different methods to test the hardness of each; Impact(Ton of Bricks), Abrasion(Angle Grinder) and Heat Resistance(Thermite)
• Celebs in their Caravans: Several celebrities lie in their caravans while a Brainiac spins a wheel and then puts it on the one he would like; then the chosen celebs would answer a science question, if it was right, they would light a long fuse, giving the celebrities a chance to rescue a precious belonging inside, if the answer was wrong, the short fuse was lit and the caravan and possession would be annihilated. The Brainiacs always fix the possession to the wall though and so the caravan and possession explodes anyway
• Chemistry Death match: Dr Bunhead and Prof. Kilcoyne square off in various contests to see who can create the best type of chemical reaction
• Cooking with Microwaves: Brainiacs cook up a recipe for disaster by placing miscellaneous items (especially flammable ones) into microwaves, which then explode.
• Brainiac for a day – a usual person blowing up an object in a randomly selected way.
• Victorian Brainiac.
• Movie Stars Destroying Cars.
• Appliance Abuse.
• Striping Celebs On The Work Bench
• Things you can run through – Involves a Brainiac running at full speed against a frame containing materials varying every week, to see if he can break through or if he'll bounce off.
• Things what my body does – A video of someone doing something extraordinary with their body.
• Stuff NASA never tried – Vic Reeves shows the efficiency (or not) of the usage of rockets in every task of life.
• I Can Do Science, Me – Charlotte Hudson invites a common person who sent a letter to answer their burning questions.
• Things That People Do For Money.
• Dr. Bunhead on the Pull – The science's biggest loser goes out to a pub, on the hope that his science can get him a girlfriend.
• 101 Uses for a Wee (urine).
• Undercover Brainiac.
• What Weird Things People Do To Attract The Other Sex
• Things Jon Tickle's body can/can't do.
• "Tickle's Teasers", supposedly unanswerable questions e.g. Can you cry underwater?
• Things you can't do while being electrocuted.
• Things you can do with Thermite.
• 47 second science: Tackling life's big questions in bite sized chunks
• Granny Brainiac: Home spun cures from an old woman that Brainiac calls "the nation's favourite old dear".
• Celebs on Helium – celebrities are invited to take a balloon of helium and say "Hi, I'm and you're watching Brainiac!"
• Custard Dreams:Walking across (and standing in) a swimming-pool full of custard to demonstrate the properties of a non-Newtonian fluid.
• Comparing the effects of what would happen (advantages and disadvantages) in certain situations involving two sorts of people, including:
  • Fat v Thin (series 1)
  • Tall v Short (series 2)
  • Lad v Lass (series 3)
  • Brainiac v Beast (series 5-6)
  • Brainiac v Toddler (series 5)
  • Tired v Wired (series 1)
  • Ugly V Beauty (series 4)
  • Left Hander V Right Hander (series 4)
  • Brainiac V Chemicals (series 5)
  • Starving V Stuffed (series 5)
• Ad Break Buffers
  • Will it break or will it bounce? Dropping things from a height and seeing if they will break or bounce.
  • What's this? A sample from an object has been magnified 25–450 times under a microscope and you have to guess what the object is.
  • Will it Fizz or will it Bang
  • Will it Glow or will it Blow
  • Will it Shunt or will it Shatter
  • Will it Fizzle or will it Flash
  • Will it Float or will it Sink (fruit)
  • Will it Float or will it Flush
• GasBangWallop.com: A website created by Barry Bernard (played by Reeves) a middle-aged man who lives in a caravan with the cameraman Clive and his t-shirt on the back says "gasbangwallop.com". The website shows videos created by Bernard which shows random stuff (mostly Clive's relative's) exploded by a big balloon.