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Short Stuff: Funny Bone · 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 it's just the Juck Josh Show, the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: short Stuff. Let's just start. I thought something happens when
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: we do short stuff because I'm trying to do something different.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: And then I felt it. We've been doing this such
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: a good job for thirteen years, and whenever we do
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: short stuff, you're just like, I don't know how to
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: do this anymore. Right, I don't something, but I think
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: it has to do with just trying to trying too hard. There,
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: it is all right, they're looser, and I think it's
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I think it's fine. Oh maybe I'm not trying hard enough. Then,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: so Chuck. Since we're laughing here, let's talk about laughing.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Great setup. Thank you again, I'm not trying hard enough.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know where we talked about this, but we
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: we did a little sidebar and this many many years
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: ago and some episode. I don't know what it was,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't matter, because the funny Bone deserves its
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: own little shorty episode. Everyone knows what we're talking about.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: We're talking about when you whack your elbow like on
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: the corner of a counter or something, and you get
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: that weird singular pain, singular sensation everywhere around the world.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: It's it's it's it's kind of painful, but it's kind
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: of stingy and shocky feeling, and it's and it does
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: kind of make you laugh sometimes. It's like it's a weird.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Like I said, it's a singular feeling, unlike hitting any
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: other part of your body. It's hitting your funny bone.
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: That's right, So it kind of that's why it has
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: its own name and its own thing. It is its own,
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: its own experience for sure. Um and no one apparently
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: from anywhere I could see, is quite sure exactly where
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: the funny bone got its name, because what you're doing
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: there is hitting your funny bone. But what you're hitting
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: is not really a bone. It's a nerve. Although some
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: people think that it got its name from the bone
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: right above this area that you're hitting. The humorous which
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I like because it's that's what I heard from the playground. Yeah,
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: it's a little play on words. I think I might
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: have heard that in the playground too. That's one of
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: those first little kid factoids that they think, you know,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: you know what it's called that it is because it's
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the humorous bone. Right. I think you're absolutely right. And
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: then somebody else says, hey, you want some liquor made,
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: and the other kid says, I'll sue you're dead. It's right,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: and then recess is over and you wonder where your
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: life's gone, and you just go inside and eat glue
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and boogers. There you go. Yeah, you get right back
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: on top of the horse. That's right. So, um, the
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: funny bone isn't a bone. I think probably everybody knows that.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: I regret saying it now, you know that I think
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: about it. Um. But what you're actually doing is hitting
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: a nerve, a specific big nerve called the ulnar nerve
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: that's responsible for it's really niche. It's responsible for the sensation,
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: singular sensation in your ring finger and your pinky finger,
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: and you have one on each arm because you have
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: a ring finger and peaky finger on each arm. Ostensibly
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: both are receiving um uh sensation and they're getting it
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: from the ulnar nerve you have in each of your
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: your arms. Yeah. It begins in your spine and it
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: goes from your neck all the way all the way
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: down your arm, all the way past your elbow, all
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: the way to the tips of those little fingers there,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and it's I think there are only three primary nerves
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: for your arm, and that's one of them. And the
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: big roll of that is, aside from the sensation of
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: those fingertips, is helping those muscles out, helping your hand
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: coordinate movement, fine movement, and your grip, like helping your
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: forearm control grip, which, by the way, I just had
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: a very weird sense. And I don't get massages much,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: but I just got a massage recently and this dude
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: worked me over in the best way. But he did
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: this thing where he was rolling down the inside of
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: my forearm with his arm, and every time he hit
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: like the midpoint, like Luke Skywalker, my my hand would
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: just clint shut. Oh it's cool. It was so weird feeling,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: and I laughed. I was like, well, that feels really weird.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: And I tried to keep it from happening, and he
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: would roll down my forearm my inner form, and my
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: hand would just go group and close shut, just like
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Empire strikes back. It was very strange. I'll bet it
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: was funny for him to watch. You try to play
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: off like it wasn't a thing. Yeah, I tried to.
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I don't let that guy was like, I'm gonna give
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: him another one of these. It was pretty great actually,
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: So they call it the kung Fu grip move. I
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: believe that's what it felt like. But yeah, that made
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: me think of those I mean, that's what's going on
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: with those nerves. Yeah, I wonder if he was hitting
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: your ulner nerve. Probably, but you said something, you said
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: a little a little jackpot tapeit there, Chuck. That was
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: the ulnar nerve goes from your spine to your neck,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: down your arm, through your elbow to your hand. And
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: it is where it passes through your elbow that the
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: potential for hitting your phony bone in that extremely weird
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: singular sensation um can take place. It feels like a
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: cliffhanger to me, I think, so all right, we'll be
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: back and until you what's going on in that little
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: spot we're at after this? All right, here we are,
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: we're in your elbow and here's the big reveal a little.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: You have a little tunnel there. I'm so creeped out
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: that the ulnar nerve goes through called the cubital tunnel.
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: It's very small. It's about four millimeters long. And it
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: goes underneath. You know that bump, the little bony bump
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: on your elbow is called the medial uh oh man,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: I had it earlier, epicond dial. It's like our gyle,
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: but our gyles cousin epicond dial. Alright, So your medial
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: epicond dial. And that's that little bony bump on the
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: inside of the back of your elbow. There and right
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: there is where that nerve is sandwich between your bone
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: and your skin. And there's the reason it's really easy
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: to get hurt. It's because there's not a lot there,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: and especially if your elbow is bent, it's kind of
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: right there under the skin, right, So when you hit
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: it just right, when your elbows bent, you're mashing your
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: nerve against between the bone above it and whatever hard
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: surface you're hitting it on. And the reason why you're
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: hitting your funny bonus so weird is two fold. I
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: have the impression, Chuck, that if you're other nerves in
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: your body were similarly exposed, like the ulnar nerve is
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: through the when it enters the cubital tunnel, that if
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: you hit those nerves you would have the same singular sensation.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: But you don't have nerves that are exposed like that
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: elsewhere in your body, which is why it's just it's
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: just the funny bone. But that's the point. You're actually
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: banging a nerve and you don't normally do that, which
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: produces a different kind of pain than the normal pain
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: you get, like when you accidentally like hit yourself in
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: the testicles. Well, it's funny you bring that up, because
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I wonder if there's a shorty on that, because that
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: is also a singular sensational pain. Okay, save it, save it.
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: Let me just say it's different than when you, uh
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: accidentally punch yourself in the stomach. You're like dough. It's
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: weird that you mentioned testicles because that is a pain
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: that feels different than any other pain. It is, and
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I think it was a terrible example now that you
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: now that you say that, but I'm glad that I
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: said it because it brought up a future short stuff
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: for us. That's right, But what you're talking about is
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: the difference between no susceptive pain and actual nerve pain.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: No susceptive being the perception of pain, like when you
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: stub your toe or something, and your body using the
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: nerves send signals that say, like, you need more clearance
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: around your bed, dummy, don't do that again. Uh, Whereas
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: the other kind of pain is actual literal pain on
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: that nerve. Yeah, Like the nerves are involved in no susception,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: but they're just kind of like, oh, it's time to
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: get to work and let this guy noticed stop doing that.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: But that nerve pain is the actual nerve being hurt,
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: And so it says I'm reserving a special kind of
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: pain for myself. Yeah, that's right. I don't know if
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: you remember a couple of years ago when I banged
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: my shin really badly. I did some kind of nerve
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: damage and for six months I had a four inch
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: space where it was just dead on the front of
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: my leg my shin. It felt like it was is
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: the worst pain I've ever experienced in my life. I'm glad.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: And it was just kicking my bed. Yeah, I mean,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: the numbness was fine, Like I mean it was it
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: weirded me out, but when it actually happened, I cried.
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: I like, I like crumbled to the floor and like
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: it wasn't crying, but like water just started pouring out
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: of my eyes and it hurts so bad. No, that
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: wasn't like I know you mean, it was just like
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: the body's reaction was, all right, we're gonna start sending
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: water out of your eyeballs. Now, Yeah, that is a
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: weird reaction or response if you think about it, it is.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: But the stuff, right, the one good thing about hitting
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: your funny bone, in particular hitting that nerve is after
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: a very short while, especially if you rub it for
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: some weird reason, it will um subside and you'll be
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: you'll go back to normal, like, you won't have that
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: pain any longer. And by the way, there's one other
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: thing about that um funny bone pain that reveals that
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: it's the ulnar nerve you're hitting. You'll notice that that
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: pain shoots all the way down into your pinkie and
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: your ring finger because the ulnar nerve terminates there. Oh,
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: I don't know if I've noticed that. It's been a
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: while since I've hit the old funny nerve, and so
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna start calling it. Okay, what about a cubital
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: tunnel syndrome. That's another thing, right, It's like a chronic condition. Yeah,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: that's how I was gonna say. There's some cases where
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: you can have like a strained ulnar nerve and it
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: can produce chronic pain. Is that tennis elbow? Uh? I
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know why they wouldn't call it
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: tennis elbow? Uh. It seems a little bizarre not to
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: but but maybe who knows. Just curious. But there was
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: let's see, this was a Methodist hospital website. We have
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: to thank a BBC site um and a couple other
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: good ones. That was Jamaica Hospitals dot org. I love
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: that one. That's a classic. I wish that whole exchange
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: would just be printed on a T shirt. Maybe we
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: could sell that as a non fungible token. Oh that's
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: a good one. But but then somebody would just getting sued.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: So no, I didn't hear that. What are you talking about?
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: He's trying to sell pulp fiction, n f t s.
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: He's trying to sell scenes from pulp fiction and Mirrormax
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: is like, you don't own that? Wow, Yeah, that's interesting,
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: surprising that he would do that. He's been in the
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: business long enough that you'd think he would know what
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: he can and can't do. You would think, well, you
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: got anything else? Nope? Okay, Well everybody that means short
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: stuff is out. Stuff you Should Know is a production
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: of I heart Radio. For more podcasts my heart Radio,
• 11:42
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• 11:45
  Speaker 1: you listening to your favorite shows.