Pass Or Fail: Watch 30 Popular Internet Life Hacks Get Tested

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The Internet is filled with thousands upon thousands of little tricks that supposedly make everyday activities better, easier, faster or safer. Unfortunately, many of these apparent tips are hogwash. So, how does an intelligent person separate the mind-blowing solutions from the frustrating fails? He or she watches this episode of Mental Floss, of course.

This week, host John Green and company decided to tackle thirty of the Internet’s more popular life hacks to give each a completely unbiased proof of concept test. Think of it like an episode of Mythbusters without such a large scope. From opening bottles of wine with a hammer and a nail to slicing cheese with floss to stemming a strawberry with a straw, a very wide range of topics were covered, and fortunately for observers looking to save time or energy, more than a few of the little tracks actually did work, some quite well.

I love Mental Floss. I’ve seen every single episode, but this is the first time I’ve ever watched one and thought this precise idea should be expanded into a show. Think about how many stupid/ ingenious Internet tips there are out there. Ten could be crammed into and tested on every single show, and younger people would watch the hell out of that. After all, many of these tests are far more important to my everyday life than anything involving cannonballs, and yet, I’ll still watch the hell out of Mythbusters.

If you feel like sitting through some more Mental Floss, try this clip covering acronymns and initialisms.

Mack Rawden
Editor In Chief

Mack Rawden is the Editor-In-Chief of CinemaBlend. He first started working at the publication as a writer back in 2007 and has held various jobs at the site in the time since including Managing Editor, Pop Culture Editor and Staff Writer. He now splits his time between working on CinemaBlend’s user experience, helping to plan the site’s editorial direction and writing passionate articles about niche entertainment topics he’s into. He graduated from Indiana University with a degree in English (go Hoosiers!) and has been interviewed and quoted in a variety of publications including Digiday. Enthusiastic about Clue, case-of-the-week mysteries, a great wrestling promo and cookies at Disney World. Less enthusiastic about the pricing structure of cable, loud noises and Tuesdays.