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Short Stuff: Jigsaw Puzzles · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, you're welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and this is short stuff. Let's get started
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: starting now. Do you like puzzles? Um? Sure, Wait a minute,
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: is this like literal jigsaw puzzles? Okay, Um, yeah, I've
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: got no problem with jigsaw puzzles. That's as far as
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I mean anything these days, Chuck, don't you know the
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: world's ending? Well, I didn't mean like, do you want
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to fight a puzzle? I mean do you do you
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: enjoy sitting down and doing a jigsaw puzzle? Yeah? Sure
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I do. I mean it's been a while, but yes,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I like a good puzzle. Um, a jigsaw puzzle in particular,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I'd like to say, like a very heartwarming one, like
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: maybe a jigsaw puzzle of a Thomas Kincaid painting, or
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: of flowers or kittens or something, and nothing's terribly hard,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: just something like occupying rather than challenging. Yeah. I didn't
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: uh do a lot of puzzles. I mean I guess
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: I did when I was a kid, and then probably
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: didn't for a long time. And we weren't a puzzle
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: family really, Um, but I did. There was one week
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: in college where a dude down the street for me.
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: A friend got a big puzzle and it was just
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: one of those things in college where you've got time
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: and three or four of us got together and drank
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: a lot for like a week and did this huge
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: puzzle and just had so much fun. And that's the
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: last puzzle I've done except for, you know, doing little
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: puzzles with my daughter. That sounds like a fun fun
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: that's a great puzzle story. It was a lot of fun.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I imagine that whole like weekend starting with a musical
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: number where like your friends sticks his head out the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: front door. He's like, gets here and you stick your
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: head out and you're like, sort of here, it's here,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the puzzle finally here. Uh, that's exactly That's exactly how
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: it went down. This is a lot of jibber jabber
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: for his short stuff, isn't it. Yeah, So we should
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: just go ahead and get to it and say that
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: a named Sir John Spillsbury. They called him the dough Boy.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: He was a engraver in England and a map maker
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: in the mid seventeen hundreds and he gets credit in
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: seventeen sixty six for creating the first jigsaw puzzle when
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: he Uh, put a map on a piece of wood,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: cut it out, cut the countries out, and said, here
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: you go. Teachers, use this to teach geography. I love
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: things where it's just like there, it is right there.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: That was the first time it ever happened. That's the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: beginning of it. There's your origin story. It's nice and tidy.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: So UM. It was kind of a teaching tool at first,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: but also people were like, it's kind of fun putting
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: the countries, and let's do this at home too, or um,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: at our friend's house over a long weekend while we drink.
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: So it kind of kind of took off and then um,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: in very short order. It also became a marketing tool too,
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: where companies would kind of, you know, maybe give away,
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: um a jigsaw puzzle that was a photo of a
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: mobile gas Asian or something like that. Um. So they
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: became very ubiquitous pretty quickly. Yeah, and they still do
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: stuff like that to promote your company. Um. They can
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: be little marketing tools. I no, Kodak has one that
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: they sell that they say is the world's largest at
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: fifty one pieces plus eight and a half feet by
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: six point to five ft. None of those things are
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: even close it's not the biggest at all. They're really
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: full of it, Chuck. I think they can just say
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: whatever they want their code. What are you gonna do?
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: I guess so. Yeah, So Codak does sell that one.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: It's like four hundred bucks, and I mean, it's nothing
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: to sneeze at. It's a giant, huge puzzle. Our problem
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  Speaker 1: with it is that they call it the world's largest
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: jigsaw puzzle. And I'm guessing it's not just us who
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: have a problem with it, but the people at the
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Guinness World Records probably have a bit of a problem
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: with it too. Either that or Codex lawyers were like,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: we have to ward this just perfectly, or else were
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: getting some trouble here because it turns out that this
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  Speaker 1: Kodak world's Largest Jigsaw puzzle is fairly mediocre compared to
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  Speaker 1: some of the other jigsaw puzzles that are around that
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  Speaker 1: take the cake for world's largest anything. Yeah, there was
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  Speaker 1: one in two thousand eighteen in Dubai that Guinness recognized
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: and it was an honor of the Year of Zaid,
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: which is a year long tribute to the person who
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: founded the U A B S Sorry the U A E. Yeah,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Shaik Zayed been Sultan all nine in Nice. I think,
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: I think I got it. And this thing was sixty
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  Speaker 1: five almost sixty six thousand square feet. Yeah that's um,
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  Speaker 1: that's pretty pretty impressive if you have you seen it, Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: it was pretty it was awesome. I mean, like the
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: pieces themselves are giant. They're like about a foot or
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: so square, and you know, the whole thing was a
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: little it was like kind of light cardboard, but when
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: put together, was quite impressive for sure. And Codex had
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: fifty pieces in change. There was one in Ho Chi
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: Min City in Vietnam that the students at the university
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: there put this thing together and it had over a
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  Speaker 1: half a million pieces, right, so um, that was I
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: think of a giant lotus flower, right, beautiful it is. Um.
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  Speaker 1: So there's definitely bigger puzzles than the one that Codex
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: touting is the world's largest jigsaw puzzle. Um. But some
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: people say, okay, that's great. Yeah, that's really time consuming.
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  Speaker 1: But any schmo with all of the pieces can put
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  Speaker 1: that thing together. Other people and this is totally unsurprising
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  Speaker 1: to me that there's like a whole subculture of people
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  Speaker 1: who are like, I want to be challenged by a
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  Speaker 1: jigsaw puzzle. As it turns out, you don't have to
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: have a football field size jigsaw puzzle to be challenged.
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  Speaker 1: You can do it with some very small surface areas.
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  Speaker 1: There's one in particular called ice Puzzle nine that's just
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: nine pieces, but it's possibly the hardest jigsaw puzzle on
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: the planet. All right, well, let's take a break there
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and we'll tell you more about ice Puzzle nine right
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  Speaker 1: after this. Have you seen this thing? I have? Have
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: you seen the video of someone putting it together? No?
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: I saw a video of the guy putting jigsaw puzzle
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: twenty three together or twenty nine. So this is a
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: designer and I think he did both of these. Name
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: you Osaka. And if you look at ice Puzzle nine,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: it's a tray, a blue tray that's about as big
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: as your two hands put together. It's very small, and
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: it's only got those nine pieces in there. You know,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: they don't look like your standard puzzle pieces there sort
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: of you know, they can be flattened places and curvy,
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  Speaker 1: just like a puzzle, but like a jigsaw puzzle, but
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: there's just something a little different. And when you look
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: at it, when you look at you think how hard
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: could that be And then I went to a YouTube
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: that showed a guy putting it together and it was
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: so easy, and I was like, how do people not
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: get that? That's how easy it is. And the only
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: thing I can think of is that it's it's easy
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: when you see someone doing it, but very hard when
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: you're just have the puzzle pieces. It must be because
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: this famous puzzler, Chris Ramsey took him two hours and
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: nine minutes and said that it was exhausting, right, and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: he's yeah, he he doesn't seem to be the kind
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: who would take like a dive for a puzzle maker,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: like he seems legit. You know, there's a There was
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: another one. I saw a video called from a guy
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  Speaker 1: named the Puzzle Guy. Who have you ever heard Croatian
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: people talk speak English? I think this is the video
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  Speaker 1: I saw. Okay, so that guy did he Jiggs. He
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: did Jigsaw Puzzle twenty nine too, and he had some
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: real trouble with it. In fact, at the end of
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the um the puzzle, when he had the last two pieces,
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: he was explaining how he couldn't get them to fit,
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: when he accidentally got them to fit and was actually
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: surprised that he finished the puzzle. Yeah, but it's great, man,
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  Speaker 1: I love I love that accidents so greatation people speak English,
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: if they just sound so just friendly and amiable, it's awesome.
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  Speaker 1: But as he was putting this together, one of the
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: big problems with Jigsaw Puzzle twenty nine, which was also
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: made by u Osaka, as you were saying, um, it
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  Speaker 1: has five corner pieces, so one of the corner pieces
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  Speaker 1: actually fits into the inside of the puzzle, and it
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  Speaker 1: just seems to be extraordinarily difficult to put together. One
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  Speaker 1: of the reasons why it's tough is all the pieces
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  Speaker 1: are exactly the same. It doesn't form a picture. Um,
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: I should say they look exactly the same, not shape wise,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: but but colorwise. They're this translucent blue or whatever. Um.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: So you just have to tell from the shape. And
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  Speaker 1: then some of the shapes look like they should fit
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: certain sizes um of like holes and that what they're called.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: The shapes go in the holes in the spaces spaces, um.
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: But they just don't quite fit. It looks very mad
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  Speaker 1: and it was maddening just to watch the video Yese
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  Speaker 1: and Ice Puzzle nine. I wish I hadn't watched it,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: and that I would have just bought it to see
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: how I would do. Um, and and I think, and
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: I don't want to give it away. But when you
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: put the last piece in it, the idea is that
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: you have to get all the pieces inside that tray.
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  Speaker 1: It's not necessarily what you think of as a puzzle,
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  Speaker 1: which is they all fit perfectly together and form a
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: perfect picture. Um. That's the only kind of hint I
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: will give is that, uh, you know, there can be
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: space in that trade. They just gotta all fit in there, right,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: That makes sense. That's a good hint. I don't want
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: to ruin it. So speak of ruining, man, did you
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: see the video of Dave Evans from Dorset, England, who uh,
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: basically created the I guess it was certified as the
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: world's largest hand cut wooden jigsaw puzzle. No. So this guy,
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: this poor guy, he created a jigsaw puzzle, an enormous one.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: It was like, um, twenty ft by eight feet and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: if you're in the UK, it's six meters by two
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  Speaker 1: and a half meters. It was just this giant puzzle
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: and he had it completed. He spent two weeks putting
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: it together, after assembling, like cutting it and then it
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: took him another two weeks just to put it together.
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: And he had in this giant piece of plywood in
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: his workshop showing it off and it somebody was filming
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: it and it just collapsed and he walks into the frame.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: It just like about to lose his mind. He just
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: can't believe that just happened. Was captured. Yes, yeah, that
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: moment was captured on video and his reaction was captured
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: on video. It's worth it's worth checking out because you
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: just agonize for the guy. It took him another sixteen
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: days with a bunch of assistants to put it back together. Well,
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: here's another interesting record, and this these are the records
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: that kind of cracked me up. There are two people
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: seemingly battling it out for the largest collection of jigsaw
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: puzzles record. Uh Louisa figure Redo I Guess of South Paulo,
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: Brazil and then Georgina gil Lacuna of the Philippines. Um
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: have over a thousand puzzles each, and they keep kind
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: of coming back and forth. And this is just such
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: a weird record because the only thing you have to
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: do is just buy more puzzles. Yeah, that's it, That's
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: all there is to it. Yeah, like where does it end?
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: I guess one of them is gonna have to kick
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: the bucket. I guess so. But then someone else takes
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: over the collection and they're like, I'm gonna buy eight
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: more puzzles. I'm winning. You would hope so, but but
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I mean, like, um, you would hope that your arch
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: nemesis would have enough class to be like, my puzzle
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: collection must be destroyed upon my death. Oh that's what
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: you do. Yeah, just set it ablaze or distributed in
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: a bunch of different pieces to different people. Now, set
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: it ablaze. Don't give it to children, all right? You know,
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: how about this, chuck, If you're in favor of setting
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: in a place, you could give them to children a need,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: But you have to stipulate in your will that a
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: piece is taken from every single one of those puzzles,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: and those pieces are set ablaze. How about that? Yeah,
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: that's the worst. We've gotten a lot of hand me
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: down puzzles, which is what happens when you have a
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: kid and all of them are missing pieces. Why you
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: should just know not to even take a hand me
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: down puzzle because it's happen, you know. So, Uh, you
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: want to talk about this last thing, this seventred person puzzle.
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: March of last year or two thousand nineteen, more than
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: seventeen hundred people um got together to form the largest
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: human jigsaw puzzle on record. And this one was cool
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: because it raised awareness for autism spectrum to order. And
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: the piece itself that they formed out of human beings
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: is the symbol for the Autism Speaks organization. And I
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: think there were I don't know if there was controversy,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: but that was surely no one like got mad about this,
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: but the question did arise. Is it a puzzle if
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: it's just a puzzle piece, or is it a puzzle
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: piece if there's no puzzle for it to fit into?
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Oh well that too, uh, And Ginnis said, you know
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: what this is, everybody. This is a largest human image record.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: In other words, everyone getting together, and when you look
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: at it from space it looks like something else. Some
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: marketing research assistant saved the day. Oh yes, I guess.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: The last thing we have to say about jigsaw puzzles
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: is that that one great Simpsons reference where there there's
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: some people sitting at a bed and breakfast putting a
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: jigsaw puzzle together. It's clearly of a donkey, and a
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: woman puts a piece into like the donkey's shoulder and says, oh,
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: it's a donkey. Right. That's like, well, you're not watching
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: what we do in the shadows, are you. No, I'm
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: saving it all up, I think. All right, Well, for
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: the fans, just let me say that's like Jackie Daytona
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: and his toothpick. Okay, there you go. I don't want
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: to know anything else about it. Well, thanks for joining
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: us on short Stuff, everybody. Short Stuff is apt Stuff
• 14:25
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• 14:27
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