Brainiac Science Abuse, The Greatest Science TV Show Ever?

Here in the Jokers' Masquerade office, if we do a poll of who loves the Sky television show Brainiac Science Abuse, it would appear that most really do. What most people do not realise is that the show actually ended in 2008. Many viewers are only now discovering the show after the Freeview channel 'PICK TV' has begun showing the catalogue of episodes.

A Brief Introduction to Brainiac

Brainiac Science Abuse is a science entertainment television show that first aired back in 2003 on Sky One. Numerous scientific experiments are carried out on each show. Regular segments include Will It Fizz or Will It Bang, featuring Dr Kilcoyne clad in a scientist costume, invariably making chemicals fizz or explode. I Can Do Science Me! Whereby a viewer gets to test a theory they may have. And Will it Bounce or Will it Break, featuring a super hot Rachel Grant as Profesor Myang Li dropping items from a height. More often than not, most experiments are the sole purpose just to destroy a caravan. We find these to be the most satisfying segments.

The original Brainiac presenters were Richard Hammond now of Top Gear fame and Jon Tickle from Big Brother. Richard Hammond left after the fourth series and was replaced by Vic Reeves for the fifth and sixth series.

At the time of writing you can see old episodes of Brainiac Science Abuse on PICK TV, Sky1 and occasionally Sky2.

Jon Tickle, Richard Hammond and Vic Reeves

Here at your favourite fancy dress retailer we tend to have a consensus that we all like the three main guys that presented Brainiac throughout the life of the show. It has to be one of the key ingredients to creating a successful television show. If you don't like the hosts why would you like the show? Mix these three characters in with the stunning girls filling the Brainiac Cheerleader costumes and the occasional celebrity appearance. Examples include Paul Daniels, Abi Titmuss and Jodie Marsh, and chances are that most people will be fully entertained.

Another thing that Brainiac always had going for it was that there was nothing quite like it on TV in this country. Today similar shows such as Mythbusters, which have a great formula are still on the air and garner good ratings in the US, but there's nothing like being able to watch a great British show is there?

Walking on Custard

One of the most famous experiments that was ever conducted on the Brainiac Science Abuse show involved Big Brother alumni Jon Tickle attempting to stride across an entire swimming pool filled with custard. Take a look at the video on YouTube if you haven't seen it.

The skit begins with original host Richard Hammond asking the question, can you walk on custard? Then, giving us the statistics we learn the magnitude of what needs to be done before we can find out. The small swimming pool that they have somehow managed to coax someone into letting them use will need somewhere in the region of 27,000 litres of custard to completely fill it. They have six cement mixers to manually mix the industrial bags of cornflour based custard powder and one madman to power walk over the top of it.

Unfortunately for Jon, if you watch the video, it looks like the producers have picked the absolute worst time of the year to film the walking on custard experiment. When Jon throws himself into the pool at the start he looks absolutely freezing. The next shot we see of him and he's dressed as if he's off skiing in Innsbruck. The poor chap. We imagine that he has a Brainiac Lab Coat with a fur collar on under those many, many layers.

Eventually the pool is filled and the brave volunteer sets off. The pool is lined with Brainiacs down each side of the pool each clad in Brainiac t shirts all clapping encouragement to Jon. With what can only be described as a prance, Jon Tickle walks on custard, he really does it. Richard asks “what happens when you stop walking about and you stand still?” with that our man Jon Tickle stops in the tracks and slowly begins to sink like an adventurer from a film sinking in quicksand. Apparently the properties of non-Newtonian fluids such as those which make up custard cause this.

There was a follow-up in one of the final two series called 'Custard Dreams' whereby one of the Brainiac shirt clad volunteers once again manages to walk on custard. This time we also have the benefit of seeing a couple of bikini clad babes. You can see this clip over on the official Sky Brainiac page.

So, can you walk on custard? Yes you can. You just have to move quickly to avoid sinking like a KitKat in a cappuccino. The Brainiac walking on custard experiment can be classed a success. We just feel sorry for whoever had to return that pool to its original state.

Our Top 5 Brainiac Experiments

• Can you drink beer whilst being electrocuted?
• Thermite vs propane
• What happens to a bottle of Champagne in a microwave?
• Can you swim in syrup?
• Anything with the fit nurse

So there you have it, we hope that you have had your fill of Brainiac costumes and found this blog informative. If you have, please take a moment to throw on your Brainiac Radiation Suit and share this page to your Twitter or Facebook using the links at the top of the page.