Explaining MetaDioxin | Yes Minister | BBC Comedy Greats

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  • čas přidán 26. 06. 2024
  • Humphrey and Jim try explaining the difference between MetaDioxin and Dioxin.
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Komentáře • 206

  • @yamabushi170
    @yamabushi170 Před 3 lety +246

    The additional one word can indeed mean a subtle difference, such as that between 'cleansing' and 'ethnic cleansing'

    • @gdchiavenna
      @gdchiavenna Před rokem +11

      Ah, but does it take the ablative?

  • @moffjendob6796
    @moffjendob6796 Před 3 lety +396

    My inner chemist is laughing... and my inner chemistry teaching is violently sobbing.

    • @JanLCn
      @JanLCn Před 3 lety +43

      I'm an inert chemist, doesn't ert me
      Hahahaha

    • @g00gleminus96
      @g00gleminus96 Před 3 lety +8

      Can you ask one of those chap to explain what metadioxin actual is.

    • @xxxdumbwordstupidnumberxxx4844
      @xxxdumbwordstupidnumberxxx4844 Před 3 lety +11

      @@g00gleminus96 Metadioxin is fictional - as best as I can tell anyway.
      Dioxins are a group of compounds - substances made up of two or more different elements - which are very toxic to the human body. The purposeful production of them is forbidden under the Stockholm Convention, but this was from before that.

    • @raptor4916
      @raptor4916 Před 2 lety +11

      @@g00gleminus96 metadioxin is fictional as the above commentor says but it does poke fun at the tendency for similarly named compounds to have different toxicological profiles take sodium cyanide and sodium cyanate for example sodium cyanide is well cyanide and sodium cyanate is about as toxic as acetaminophen (1500mg ld50/kg vs 1944 mg ld50/kg ld 50 means the amount needed to cause 50% of the population given the dose to die) not exactly mothers milk but a risk that can be very easily dealt with in general.

  • @DomWeasel
    @DomWeasel Před 3 lety +346

    I love the novelisation of this episode in the script book because it has Hacker realise that four people who know absolutely nothing about chemistry are discussing chemistry and he notes just how absurd the situation is.
    It demonstrates how daft government really is, with ministers appointed to run departments they have no knowledge or understanding of. Health ministers with no medical degrees, the Department of Defence minister having no military experience or knowledge, a Minister of Agriculture who knows nothing about farming and has lived in a city their entire life...
    As Hacker says in this episode, ministers are appointed specifically because they know nothing.

    • @0xCAFEF00D
      @0xCAFEF00D Před 3 lety +33

      It worries me that being sick of experts is a fairly popular view. I hope it's just a phase.

    • @ookland81
      @ookland81 Před 3 lety +8

      And here we are some 40 years later yet nothing has changed.

    • @Cryptonymicus
      @Cryptonymicus Před 3 lety +9

      How daft government is? Why? You think private industry is better? Have you ever called a customer service phone line? A bigger cluster of dumbfucks was never assembled.

    • @DomWeasel
      @DomWeasel Před 3 lety +2

      @@Cryptonymicus
      Yeah, if you're going to talk about mismanagement and farce in the private sector, citing customer service phone lines which are done on the cheap using the dregs of the workforce is really not the best way to go.

    • @rcm926
      @rcm926 Před 3 lety

      @@Cryptonymicus How daft *our* government is

  • @mattevans4377
    @mattevans4377 Před 3 lety +127

    "Well all chemicals are dangerous..."
    He was about to make a good point. It's the amount that matters. Apples contain trace amounts of cyanide. But you'd have to eat so many, other factors would kill you first. It's possible there is a similar situation with MetaDioxin. It may be a diluted version of Dioxin, so much so, that it's basically harmless.

    • @MrThorfan64
      @MrThorfan64 Před 3 lety +1

      @TheRenaissanceman65 Ah yes, serious levels found in the water supply. You might say people are swimming in it!

    • @dash1141
      @dash1141 Před 2 lety +1

      Could an apple a day prove fatal then?

    • @Delightfully_Bitchy
      @Delightfully_Bitchy Před 2 lety +4

      Both that and Jim agreeing to the public inquiry were good points by Jim, but Humphrey just swept it away because it wasn't furthering his goals immediately.
      Jim really should have put his foot down for the sake of public health.

    • @jy3n2
      @jy3n2 Před rokem +5

      More than that, it's inert. Non-reactive. Presumably, safe for consumption.
      But still, might be worth looking into, just to make sure that it actually is inert.

    • @Grz349
      @Grz349 Před rokem +2

      Meta means the chemical has a different shape.

  • @jkolorath
    @jkolorath Před 3 lety +101

    What does inert mean?
    That it's not Ert.
    !!
    Bernard- Would nt hurt a fly
    Lol 😅😂

  • @dorkmax7073
    @dorkmax7073 Před 3 lety +201

    If a chemist were in the room (and of Metadioxin were a possible compound), or even if Jim Hacker were competent in Chemistry from college, he could give a satisfying answer.
    "You're confused on the name because you assume that similarly named compounds have similar properties. Chemists name compounds for their molecular structure, and the science of chemistry is so intricate that whatever property gives Metadioxin a different structure from dioxin is enough to ensure a wildly different behavior, so that it is inert. All chemical reactions are born from an instability, when a chemcial substance has too many or too few subatomic components such as neutrons or electrons. The desire to become stable drives most chemical reactions from nuclear fission, the formation of stars, the bubbling of a child's model volcano, and the oxygenation of your bloodstream. A stable compound, by its nature, avoids largely avoids interaction with the environment, and therefore is harmless. The air is filled with an inert gas that goes into your lungs every day without issue- Nitrogen.

    • @MrThorfan64
      @MrThorfan64 Před 3 lety +18

      Well of course. But no-one in Govt. knows any science.

    • @MrThorfan64
      @MrThorfan64 Před 3 lety +9

      @Henry Coy Dunning-Kruger effect then. Lots of people thinking they know better then they do, rather then just pretending they do. Its that whole we've had enough of experts, I know better mentality pushed by high-ranking people such as the entitled anti-intellectual Gove.

    • @ragerancher
      @ragerancher Před 3 lety +11

      The problem is competence doesn't tend to be as funny.

    • @Imitorar
      @Imitorar Před 3 lety +4

      That sounds more like Doctor Who than Yes, Minister.

    • @millomweb
      @millomweb Před 3 lety

      There's nothing 'science' about chemistry. Chemistry is so random it's like running the bingo and pulling out ball number minus five.

  • @sphagbog
    @sphagbog Před 3 lety +20

    Not a word wasted. Every facial expression is perfect. The best.

  • @moffjendob6796
    @moffjendob6796 Před 3 lety +85

    Also, "Normal" dioxin is also known as para-dioxin or 1,4-dioxin. Ortho-dioxin is 1,2 dioxin.
    Meta-dioxin would be 1,3 dioxin. The numbers mean there is an oxygen atom with a second oxygen atom at the second-number position. So, 1,2 has them right next to each other (at 1 and 2). 1,4 has them opposite each other in the molecule (1 at 12 o'clock, 1 at 6 o'clock), and the 1,3 is in between.

    • @Quintinohthree
      @Quintinohthree Před 3 lety +24

      That's nice but for reasons that are quite obvious to chemists 1,3-dioxin is unable to exist.

    • @JanLCn
      @JanLCn Před 3 lety +7

      Wouldn't the proper chemical name then be, dioxybenzene?

    • @jonjones971
      @jonjones971 Před 2 lety +7

      Normal Dioxin is : 2,3,7,8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin

  • @RahulKumar-ng2gh
    @RahulKumar-ng2gh Před 3 lety +98

    I love how, eliteness of both universities cannot be expressed more beautifully.

    • @AlifNurfakhri
      @AlifNurfakhri Před 3 lety +37

      "The Universities. Both of them"
      -Sir Humphrey when talking about subsidy

    • @AndyMcGehee
      @AndyMcGehee Před 3 lety +20

      It is interesting to an American. While Harvard, Yale, MIT, and so forth all have their snob factor, they’ve got nothing when compared to Oxbridge.

    • @readsomebooks666
      @readsomebooks666 Před 3 lety +1

      Was Bernard at Cambridge?

    • @RahulKumar-ng2gh
      @RahulKumar-ng2gh Před 3 lety +3

      @@readsomebooks666 nope, oxford

    • @Desavlos
      @Desavlos Před 3 lety +2

      Once upon a time sure. It's not like that any more.

  • @shankarsiv
    @shankarsiv Před 3 lety +46

    Bernard's sotto voce quip about the fly is one of my favourites.

  • @johnmarktasker
    @johnmarktasker Před 3 lety +97

    As ever, Bernard steals the scene by his quips😂

  • @nnannakalu9423
    @nnannakalu9423 Před 3 lety +88

    "What does 'inert' mean?"
    "Well, it means that it's not...ert."
    As a chemist by training, I HOWLED with laughter at this exchange!

  • @dnorfed
    @dnorfed Před 3 lety +13

    It’s Brenda blethyn, commonly known as VERA, a great show, a must watch

  • @siredith8846
    @siredith8846 Před rokem +3

    1:21 …in other words with or after dioxin, sometimes beyond d’oxin…😂

  • @Wol747
    @Wol747 Před 3 lety +22

    As always, Bernard has the best - if infrequent - lines.

  • @fattypark
    @fattypark Před 3 lety +15

    Sounds about right. People at the top who can roll off expression after expression in Latin/Greek, but don't understand a thing about science, engineering or anything practical. Wonder how many of the current cabinet have science or engineering degrees? Would be surprised if there are any.

    • @blaze4111
      @blaze4111 Před 2 lety +3

      public workers/civil servants don't usually have practical knowledge and generally no actual understanding of what they are doing. in my country they also tend to be home by 14:00.

    • @SpeckleKen
      @SpeckleKen Před 2 lety +8

      Boris read classics, Raab law, Rishi and Truss PPE, and Priti forwent university to qualify as a concentration camp administrator.

    • @GoldenSunAlex
      @GoldenSunAlex Před 2 lety

      @@SpeckleKen Well, shows Priti is qualified for the job then.

    • @apocalypseyah7870
      @apocalypseyah7870 Před rokem

      @@GoldenSunAlex
      If you want the citizens of the UK to be treated by their government as concentration camp inmates, yes.

    • @GoldenSunAlex
      @GoldenSunAlex Před rokem

      @@apocalypseyah7870 Except that that ones we're putting in camps aren't UK citizens, so it's ok.

  • @TheNefastor
    @TheNefastor Před 3 lety +3

    "What does inert mean" :-D oh geezus his answer !!!

  • @rishabhawasthi8825
    @rishabhawasthi8825 Před 3 lety +3

    Full episode please

  • @asdfasd1
    @asdfasd1 Před 2 lety +3

    Good. Now I memorized META forever😂

  • @deesplaylists6941
    @deesplaylists6941 Před 3 lety +34

    Hacker: won't cost us more than 100 votes.
    My majority is 91. Lol.

    • @thegoonist
      @thegoonist Před 3 lety +1

      what does that mean? she needs 91 votes to get a majority? there are constituencies that small??

    • @Niatnuom_Esiotrot
      @Niatnuom_Esiotrot Před 3 lety +11

      @@thegoonist that means she only won by 91 votes in the last election

    • @thegoonist
      @thegoonist Před 3 lety +2

      @@Niatnuom_Esiotrot ah yes that makes much more sense! thanks!

    • @deesplaylists6941
      @deesplaylists6941 Před 3 lety

      @@thegoonist what it means is, it's a joke, she only has 91 not a 100 majority. Get it? Hacker thinks a 100 votes to lose means nothing. Get it?

    • @deesplaylists6941
      @deesplaylists6941 Před 3 lety

      @@Niatnuom_Esiotrot it's a math joke. Hacker saying so what a 100 votes to lose means shit. She said she only has 91 majority not a hundred lol.

  • @fishyc150
    @fishyc150 Před 3 lety +15

    @3:23 he says "we agree that the only difference is in the name..."
    Surely he meant the only similarity?

    • @METT-TC
      @METT-TC Před 2 lety +1

      That's one of the jokes in the bit

    • @SebastianSoong
      @SebastianSoong Před 2 dny

      Good catch. I watched this clip 5 times yet I didn't notice it.

  • @harishnunkoo509
    @harishnunkoo509 Před 3 lety +25

    For once, Humphrey was not in his elements. Was hoping Bernard would jump in to elaborate on it. Humphrey's compound interest response was hilarious.

    • @007dalal
      @007dalal Před 2 lety +3

      Humphery should have just asked for his chemist friend and expert

  • @ianpatterson6552
    @ianpatterson6552 Před 2 lety +2

    A very young Brenda Blethyn as the bewildered MP.

  • @ShieldThatGuardsTheRealmOfMen

    "...broadly speaking..." LOL

  • @siredith8846
    @siredith8846 Před rokem +1

    2:12 it means it’s not……ert 😂

  • @davidtalbot941
    @davidtalbot941 Před 3 lety +25

    Is that a young Brenda Blethyn?

  • @ournationcomesfirst
    @ournationcomesfirst Před 2 lety +10

    No wonder Mark Zuckerberg desperately wanted to name his company Meta! 😂

  • @marrahbintu8523
    @marrahbintu8523 Před 2 lety +1

    Hahaha l love this show very funny it makes me laugh

  • @stayforthepeelpronpls4774

    Gerry got a promotion

  • @007dalal
    @007dalal Před 2 lety +1

    This episode was good. It is not every day you get to agree with Humphery

  • @karldelavigne8134
    @karldelavigne8134 Před 3 lety +6

    A young Brenda Blethyn.

  • @HYPERMASCULINE
    @HYPERMASCULINE Před 3 lety +4

    Put it on iplayer

  • @annazaman9657
    @annazaman9657 Před 3 lety +3

    Vera!!!

  • @mik3lson652
    @mik3lson652 Před 5 měsíci

    "Beyond dioxin"😂

  • @juliangraham4516
    @juliangraham4516 Před 2 lety +2

    Nick Clegg explaining the new name to Zuckerberg

  • @siredith8846
    @siredith8846 Před rokem +1

    Mrs Littler should have met with the PM instead: she was a Research Chemist.

  • @arrows8367
    @arrows8367 Před 2 lety

    what did Humphrey say at 2:22?

  • @Soul-Aquisition
    @Soul-Aquisition Před 2 lety +3

    Same name with META stuck in front of it. Zuckerberg must have watched this episode when he decided to change Facebook's name.

  • @joesphcollins3788
    @joesphcollins3788 Před 3 lety +2

    A video with no dislikes??? Absolute gem

  • @brucie-of-bangor528
    @brucie-of-bangor528 Před 3 lety +4

    DCI Vera Stanthorpe in her previous life!

  • @henryteo6470
    @henryteo6470 Před 2 lety +1

    3:23 shouldn’t similarity be used rather than difference?

  • @aryehklempner6073
    @aryehklempner6073 Před 29 dny

    When you prioritize classics over chemistry as the hallmark of a solid education

  • @atsukunisumeragi1967
    @atsukunisumeragi1967 Před 3 lety +4

    Meta is often sinonymous with super. That is the funniest part.

    • @CuFhoirthe88
      @CuFhoirthe88 Před 3 lety

      When?

    • @laurencefraser
      @laurencefraser Před 3 lety

      @@CuFhoirthe88 there are a few words where, similar to super, it is used to mean "out side of, beyond, a higher level of abstraction" etc. Metaphysics, metamagic (spells that affect the behaviour of other spells rather than doing something directly themselves (in some games))

    • @CuFhoirthe88
      @CuFhoirthe88 Před 3 lety

      @@laurencefraser That doesn't address what I was asking about "meta". And I already know all of that.

  • @007dalal
    @007dalal Před 2 lety

    Hacker and Humphery should have just simple said that they can fix meeting with the Chemist who will explain her everything.

  • @siredith8846
    @siredith8846 Před rokem

    2:58 Compound:

  • @veroniquendambo3242
    @veroniquendambo3242 Před 3 lety +4

    Didn't the cabinet have a specialist in the field to clearly explain that scientific name in plain English and its implications on the environment and health?

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 Před 3 lety +1

      There was a specialist appointed by Sir Humphrey, not the cabinet

    • @veroniquendambo3242
      @veroniquendambo3242 Před 3 lety

      @@johnking5174 I see. Thank you Sir.

    • @007dalal
      @007dalal Před 2 lety

      I also thought. Why not just call the expert in room then?

  • @kathri1006
    @kathri1006 Před 3 lety +7

    The lessons are as I see:
    Never go to a politician without knowing full facts of what it is about.
    And they lie, and short term monetary interests are all they and the market care about and the poisoning of environment is the least of their concerns as that is after many political cycles, something they do not compute.

    • @GoldenSunAlex
      @GoldenSunAlex Před 2 lety

      That's the danger you have with democracy. When you elect someone, there first priority is always to keep their job.
      Democracy is a sickness which must be cured.

  • @tomahawk1556
    @tomahawk1556 Před 3 lety +1

    Meta = Boundary marker of higher level. Dioxin = Byproducts of herbicides. 🕯

  • @heatchills4093
    @heatchills4093 Před 3 měsíci

    Hard to believe that that's Vera. I wonder what she really sounds like in real life, whether she's posh like she is here, or more blue collar like she is in Vera. _Edit:_ Actually, where you get to the end of the clip and she gets a bit frustrated, you can hear some of Vera leaking through in her voice there.

  • @lon3don
    @lon3don Před 2 lety +1

    Wouldn't it be good if the teaching of science and modern languages were given greater priority in schools and if the people running the show actually had some understanding of science and engineering.

    • @RBAWintrow
      @RBAWintrow Před rokem

      Add politics to that. Who is in your local council?

  • @mickd6942
    @mickd6942 Před 3 lety +3

    Is that Brenda blethyn

    • @pazil888
      @pazil888 Před 3 lety

      Ctrl + F , then type " Brenda "

  • @mspencer5519
    @mspencer5519 Před 2 lety +2

    Who is here after the fb rebranding?🤣🤣

  • @timewalker6654
    @timewalker6654 Před 3 lety +7

    Now i don't want any chemistry Eggheads ruining the video by giving metadoxin explanation.

    • @Quintinohthree
      @Quintinohthree Před 3 lety +3

      The best explanation is that metadioxin is en entirely sensible name which specifically describes something that doesn't and cannot exist.

    • @Myndir
      @Myndir Před 3 lety

      @@Quintinohthree Too technical for me.

  • @diwanumam1507
    @diwanumam1507 Před 3 lety +12

    Life was hard before google.

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 Před 3 lety +1

      You had a thing called libraries and books

  • @rogertemple7193
    @rogertemple7193 Před rokem

    An odd series about government especially
    for the British of the time period.

  • @MonaMarMag
    @MonaMarMag Před 3 lety

    Pół żartem - pół serio .
    Myślę , że to właściwie jest prawda tylko nam ją przekazano w formie żartu .

    • @jakedee4117
      @jakedee4117 Před 3 lety

      Taki jest cały ten serial telewizyjny. Wiele historii zostało zaczerpniętych z rzeczywistych wydarzeń i prawdziwych ludzi, ale zmieniono je dla uzyskania humorystycznego efektu.

  • @subhrodeepsaha9245
    @subhrodeepsaha9245 Před 3 lety +4

    Oh c'mon! inert is basic english!! ;-D

  • @black7987echo
    @black7987echo Před 2 lety +1

    Meta is the new Facebook.

  • @AB034TX
    @AB034TX Před 3 lety +1

    The lady looks similar to Molly from Sherlock.

    • @agnesvanya2329
      @agnesvanya2329 Před 3 lety +2

      That's Brenda Blethyn, later to play the detective. " Vera". Amazing range she has!

  • @aryaaswale7316
    @aryaaswale7316 Před 2 lety +1

    Its not ‘ert’

  • @giridharbg
    @giridharbg Před rokem

    I assume the last 2 years decisions were made along same lines?

  • @gman922
    @gman922 Před 3 lety +4

    Brilliant show not a lot of Americans understood it!!!!!

    • @johnking5174
      @johnking5174 Před 3 lety

      And are you an American?

    • @ssbohio
      @ssbohio Před 3 lety +1

      I worked in the civil service in the United States. It was more like Yes, Minister than I'd care to remember:
      My agency, a tax regulator, was headed by a political appointee, a healthcare company lobbyist.

  • @arunmishra8842
    @arunmishra8842 Před 2 lety +2

    Litler and Hitler

  • @latenightlogic
    @latenightlogic Před 5 měsíci

    Couldn’t cost us more about a hundred votes…
    My majority is 91.

  • @stoyanfurdzhev
    @stoyanfurdzhev Před 2 lety

    Is modern physics metaphysis? I will say, very much so. What about you dear spokesman of Einstein on Earth?

  • @knightf8648
    @knightf8648 Před 3 lety +1

    You insert -o- and it becomes meta.

  • @pjero2005
    @pjero2005 Před 2 lety +1

    Facebook jokes in 3,2,1...

  • @ws5290
    @ws5290 Před 2 lety

    This really happens at government level

  • @bob-wo3ir
    @bob-wo3ir Před 3 lety

    Bullshitting is a true art form.

  • @bazpearce9993
    @bazpearce9993 Před 3 lety +8

    Ads on BBC content. Demand your license fee back.

    • @DomWeasel
      @DomWeasel Před 3 lety

      Get Adblock.

    • @karlbassett8485
      @karlbassett8485 Před 3 lety +1

      The BBC is forbidden by law from doing lots of things free, or even cheaply. It would be contrary to competition law. For example when the BBC had a few stores selling DVDs and stuff they had to be very careful NOT to undercut local WHSmiths, HMV etc because they could sue the BBC for using public money to compete unfairly. In putting clips on CZcams I would assume the BBC still pays the writers royalties, but to do so out of licence fee funds for a clip shown on a commercial website would be naughty, and possibly illegal. It's the same reason BBC America has adverts. It would be illegal for the BBC to use licence fee money to fund broadcasts outside the UK public service remit AND other broadcasters in America could sue under competition laws. How could they compete fairly when they have to show adverts and a BBC channel didn't?

  • @MrHistorian123
    @MrHistorian123 Před 3 lety +3

    I was in the scholarship form, did Classics (Latin and Greek) AND Chemistry and Physics, and I would say that Classics is by far the easiest of the three, which is why I went on to do Physics. Classics is best reserved for thickos like Boris Johnson.
    And metadioxin doesn't exist.

  • @joesphcollins3788
    @joesphcollins3788 Před 3 lety

    A video with no dislikes??? Absolute gem

    • @MrThorfan64
      @MrThorfan64 Před 3 lety +2

      Well only up today. Soon someone will get angry.

    • @MrThorfan64
      @MrThorfan64 Před 3 lety +1

      And already someone is angry now. Within but a day of the upload.