A magical bit of string

How long is a piece of string?

the guys from hey riddle riddle would be great on this show

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I just assumed it was a given that the child had cancer, and it took me a minute to realize that wasnt actually included in the question, but rather something they were supposed to figure out. Knowing the show's tendency to give questions to people with the relevant expertise, my mind was just already there.

I'm surprised it took them so long to get the last bit

That was a frightening heartwarming interesting exciting question!

I'm sure in the US they would charge for use of the string

why salty water comes out of my eyes?

I was going to guess braiding as a simple manual task to keep the mind off the procedure.

I was expecting the child to be revealed as not a human child at some point

But... How does the kid know it's the parent at the other end...?😅 It could just be some random tech person working in the section.

Several years ago, I saw a pair of headphones that used that hollow-tube design so that the electromagnetic parts could be placed as far away from your head as possible. Because some people still think that tiny doses of electromagnetic radiation will give them cancer.

I fully believed this child was in utero, and the "multicolored string" was the umbilical cord

The answer was so sweet and so sad

Aw that’s such a good idea ♥️

I was wrong. I thought it was the knitted octopuses that they give to premature babies. The yarn mimics the umbilical cord which gives a sense of familiar environment, and the entire thing gives tactile feedback which is important to early development (like how newborns cling to your finger--or beard, or chest hair, for the dads 😆). Also, the babies pull on the yarn rather than the various tubes and wires taped to them.

If you knit or crochet, and are looking for simple projects to use up all those short yarn scraps, see if there's an octopus group in your area.

I enjoy this group joking along together. Hope to see them again soon.

Initial thoughts: a child going through a scan (X-ray, CAT, MRI, etc.) which leave it alone in a "scary" place. The coloured strings could in the short-term captivate/focus its attention, making it feel better by forgetting about the scary place for a moment or two. It could even be that the other end of those strings is held by a parent to reassure the kid that it's not alone and that they are still there together. The long-term is just the info from the scan that helps provide better medical care.

Because there's a balloon attached to the other end, and everyone knows balloons are therapeutic (ignoring irrational phobias).

"What's that, Little Billy, you want your mask to be painted with... Hannibal Lecter?"

I immediately thought of some kind of cancer treatment - Hank giving the question unfortunately was a bit of a giveaway

This one made me cry just thinking about it. I was sort of aware that Great Ormond Street does a similar thing with the masks, because one of my best mates from uni has a son who was diagnosed with lymphoma at seven, and it recently came back. I always send him and the family extra large birthday cards, they’ve been through so much yet there’s an insanely positive glint in his eyes. No child should ever have to go through this but it’s so cool that doctors have come up with little ways to make it slightly less unbearable. Thanks to Hank for sharing this ❤

As a parent, this is intense. Never had to do this specific thing, but I've held down my toddler so the xray image would come out crisp. No need for a string to feel the connection, but not easy either. Being a parent is amazing, and also not without hardship at times.

For the ground wire in the US, the modern electrical code allows the green-yellow or just green, but traditionally they're just bare copper.

Well... That ended up being severely depressing.

I thought this was going to be about a baby in the womb with the umbilical cord lol

Yes, sound tubes exist, they're called Gosport Tubes, they were (are?) used for communication on board ships. It's basically an amplifier on one end and a speaker on the other.

does this work for adults or do i have to be 5 or so years younger

I must admit I thought it was an isolation chamber for immune system-compromised kids.

Is the child human? Maybe the child is a young bird or something, and some multicolored string is enough to entertain them.

I never get the answer right away until the last two - Charlie bit my finger and this one. I have a kid who has been in the hospital a lot, so I instantly knew what was going on. So sweet!

Dang this is a combination of harsh and wholesome.

Good job, Hank, sporting the Pizzamas merch just in time for Pizzamas.

One of the few questions where I got the answer before they did and was dying watching them skirt around the answer 😂




As soon as he said it was something where the parent could not be in the room, I knew! Because I've seen Hank talk about this before! Not this specific thing, but with the labyrinth and all that

The way Tom describes the tube headphone, he does not seem to remember that not that long ago, that was the way headphones worked aboard airplanes.

Those MRI headphones are what the Airlines used to use when they would play movies during long flights...the headphones had no electronics, and you would have to buy them as the movie started.

MRI scanner?

I absolutely adore hearing stories of adults coming up with simple but effective ways to make kids feel better in scary situations. ❤

I guessed the general location almost immediately, then got thrown by the multicoloured nature of the string and couldn't figure any more out.

The coloured-ness of the string completely threw me off. I wanted to guess almost exactly the answer (I went with MRI and assumed you couldnt be in the room for it), but mentally eliminated this line of reasoning due to the coloured nature of the string.

I'm old enough that I've been on an airliner where the headphones were hollow tubes that plugged into a box with an enclosed speaker.

Tom, in many previous episodes: "We don't do dark, sad questions."

has to be said for superhero origin stories involving radiation, arguably the Hulk is a closer fit that Spider-Man to what is being described here

I love this much more than perhaps I should

bitten by a radioactive spider. got cancer instead of superpowers.

My guess was that it had something to do with eye surgery and the multicolored aspect was for the kid to be able to verify that it worked in some way.

my thought was a collapsed building and they give the kid the string so it knows it's been found and they're working hard to get it out.

Upload the one where Hank got it within 20 seconds, you cowards 😉
(Love the show!)