099 = Most Watched Films and Homonyms

Hello, and welcome to A Problem Squared, the problem-solving podcast, which is a bit like a home-cooked meal.

It's warm, familiar, and really hits the spot, even if it isn't necessarily prepared well or has any nutritional value.

I'm your host, Beck Hill, and I'd say I'm similar to Welsh rare bit in that when I call myself a comedian and writer, it's just a fancy way of saying cheesy and basic.

And I am joined by your other host, Matt Parker, who is like mash and gravy.

Oh, because as a comedian and mathematician, he makes pie even more palatable.

Oh, wow.

That's an excellent intro.

Yay!

I prepared.

You did.

In this episode,

I've calculated the most common words.

And I've looked at the most common media.

Oh, wow.

A theme.

Consumed.

Five years in, and we have a theme.

Sort of.

And we have some any other business.

Yes.

Any other bakeness.

I've done that before, haven't we?

Amateur other business.

Because a home-cooked meal is not prepared by professionals.

It's not a professional.

Well, it could be if you're a professional.

Well, that's food at home.

Yeah.

An

okay

bread is what i would cook if i was

hey matt bec how are we doing i'm good i'm good i

did a gig for the royal flying doctors service oh wow which is an australian charity they fly around to

people who need a doctor yes out in the middle of night near a doctor Exactly.

And they

have like a bunch of patrons over here in the UK.

So they were doing an event.

Lovely comedian Adam Hills asked me if I would like to be on the bill.

You're a friend of mine.

And I thought, yeah, yeah, I'll help raise money for them.

And I assumed that meant it was going to be like a gig with a bunch of comics, and the ticket money all goes towards

a classic charity gig.

I realized far too close to the time that I was performing.

Were you at the show?

It was a gala.

Oh, a gala.

Like a dinner, a very fancy dinner for very rich patrons.

Right.

So the sort of event you put on to try and convince rich people to keep giving you the money that keeps the service running.

So a normal charity gig, lots of people, a little bit of money from each one.

This was

way fewer people.

300 people, but having a very fancy meal.

Got it.

They put on a whole comedy show for them.

Nope.

I was the only comedian on the bill other than Adam Hills, who was hosting.

What do you need?

Yeah, yeah.

No pressure.

We'll just let one of the best, most popular Australian

comics

to not do the comedy.

Established the bar.

And then just before it all began, I went into the bathroom and washed my hands next to Julia Gillard, the former

Australian Prime Minister.

And Australia's first female prime minister.

Yeah.

So that was very high pressure.

The famous and the powerful.

Beck Hill has come home.

Also, because originally Hilsey wanted me to do my flip charts,

but the layout of the room did not lend itself.

Like there were people who were

quite important.

Yeah.

And it was too late to try and sort something out.

And there'd already been a bunch of tech issues that they were having with other stuff.

So I was like, there's no way that this would have worked.

So instead, I was like, okay, I'd taken all of my props.

I'd taken all this stuff.

And I was like, yep, nope, that's gone out the window.

Yep.

I would just do a set tailored to what feels right.

The only thing being is, I realized that most of my like Australian and Britons are different material is about like swears and rude stuff.

So I ended up doing some pretty blue material to the former prime minister.

How many former prime ministers were present?

I think just the one.

Okay.

Yeah, but they were all very kind, very nice to me afterwards.

So I don't think I ruined the Royal Flying Doctor's service chances you've not tarnished there yeah hilsey did say something to me which he said i've never had to say this to an act before i'm going to bring you on just after i've sung happy birthday to the king

because king charles is the main patron oh actually

you've got to be nice to him and the main guy organizing it all has his number so he got of course adam to sing happy birthday while they filmed it just on a phone yeah and to text it to him

to just want to

to old Charlie.

Old Charlie boy.

And then I went on stage.

I was like, are you ready to laugh?

Now, I would say that normally in this scenario with this sort of event,

and I don't mean to shame these guys because this is something that is very close to Adam's heart and he's been doing for a long time.

If you are a charity that is putting on an event of this scale.

Yep.

to get big money in, and you are paying the caterers and you are paying the tech people and you are paying the venue, which was the Dorchester Hotel, by the way, in Hyde Park.

That is not free.

Please pay your entertainment.

Yeah.

Because I was there going, I am the only

like out of everyone in this room, I am the one who was not getting paid to do my job.

Yes, yes.

They did, however, give me a nice thank you gift.

Oh, okay.

Would you like to describe for the listeners what I am some kind of swag-esque Royal Flying doctor service a rolled-up pouch with two straps holding it closed this is an official first aid kit an official first aid kit yes for the outback wow it's got a real not steampunk not retro but it's got a real leather straps and metal plate vibe like a swag it's got a swag a swag vibe it's got more attention to aesthetics than you'd normally expect from a first aid kit normal first aid kits just go for extremely bright colours to make them easy to find.

This one,

this one would blend in to an anthropology store.

I should also say, when we say swag as Aussie's, like a thing you sleep on, yeah.

Yeah, we're referring to there's a type of like sleeping bag made of this very thick canvas that's sort of got the mattress in it as well.

And it's it's so you don't need a tent, yeah, basically.

These are the some of the kits that we got snake bite, burns, sprains, and

strains.

Okay, so if you get bitten by a snake, that's on fire yeah and then you try to run away too fast yeah this is the kit for you great this is good if you've got a snake that has all the venom to kill everyone in the world or something like that yeah you just need this throw back to us this primary school pencil case yeah of equipment i found it funny that these are things that i've been given in the uk where i need the less useful here This one in particular, though, this is why I really wanted to bring this.

The whole point was to come here and say this.

All that story about the gala and us.

All right, ready.

This is the best thing that I've ever been given for doing a gig.

Oh, my goodness.

Amputated parts bags.

Look, look.

Here's what you need to do.

Number one, control bleeding from stump.

When you're like, oh, thank you for this lovely gift that you've given me for doing a gig.

And then that's the first thing you read.

This is arguably the biggest burn you could give a performer boost gig.

You're like, oh,

that went so well.

Now I've got the

need to be able to control bleeding from stump

you died out there mate because point two is just seek urgent medical assistance i like how that feels like that second yeah but before step three place amputated part into a clean plastic bag and seal four preferably float the bag in a container of icy water or on top of crushed ice Do not allow amputated part to be soaked in water.

That's where I've been going wrong.

That's what you keep doing.

I keep soaking them in the water and then they're all the losers.

They swell.

That's, you know,

I'm laughing because it's objectively very funny.

But I don't think I would have got those steps right in an emergency.

No.

But the real kicker about this is, is that Adam also got paid with one of these kits.

Oh, that's a really Adam.

Not on the nose, but a little bit below the belt, if you will.

Yeah, famously, for any listeners who aren't aware of Adam Hills, has one leg.

Has one leg.

Yeah.

So he found this equally as amusing.

I bet he did.

It's very funny.

It's good now to have an official a problem squared first aid kit.

Matt, how are you?

I'm good.

Spent a weekend just sorting things out in the house.

Not super exciting.

But necessary.

Yes, Christmas is very close.

And so descending upon our house shall be.

Because this is our first Christmas back in the UK.

Yeah.

I did two Aussie Christmases.

We built up a Christmas debt with Lucy's family and they have come to collect.

Oh, so her parents will be joining us.

Ah, her sister will be joining us and her sister's hangers-on,

which is her husband and her two children.

Oh, yes.

So that's six additional humans.

And Lucy's other sister lives not that far from us, and they've got their whole family showing up there as well.

Wow.

Separate, like the other half of the family.

So there's a lot.

There's going to be a lot of people around.

And that's why we are recording this from a new desk.

This is because I had to clear it out of a room at home

to fit another bed, basically, just to have capacity for all the humans.

Oh, I see how it is.

Yeah.

Now you're getting a bed.

Now we get a bed.

But I'm very excited about this.

I don't know if we've brought this up.

A couple of days ago, I looked in the calendar.

30th of November, 2019, the first episode.

Ooh.

So this one, episode 99, will be.

Listening anniversary, year five.

Happy five-year anniversary.

Yep.

Congratulations to everyone listening who's been with us from the start and welcome to all those who have joined since yep

uh i i've just looked it up and the traditional anniversary gift for the fifth year is wood and we're nothing if not traditional lauren armstrong carter our producer pointed out we've got a new table which is made of wood

happy anniversary back Thank you.

We got a table.

Yeah.

But I didn't have room for at home.

What's our golden is it?

No, diamond birthday.

When's our diamond birthday?

Because we started in 2019, so it'll be when the podcast turns 19.

Yeah.

Which would be in 2038.

All right.

Which is not impossible.

No.

Mate, we're going to be real embarrassed if we're one day recording that and we're like, oh, we didn't think it would happen, but

here we are.

I like to think we'll still be going.

Shall we do our fifth anniversary episode?

All right, let's do a show.

Our first problem is from Torin.

Torin?

Torin?

How is that spelled?

T-O-R-I-N.

Torrin.

I'll go Torin.

Yeah.

You said, a friend who is an ESL speaker, that's English as a second language, recently asked me what I meant when I used the word nip in a story I wrote.

Yeah, let's clarify.

They pointed out it wasn't rude, but they were only familiar with the word as a contraction of nipple.

Yep.

Which I think of all the rude versions is fine.

This made me realize how many meanings nip has in English.

To nip out, as into the shops.

Yep.

A small bite.

Oh, a nip.

Yeah.

Yep.

A sneaky drink.

Nip of whiskey.

Oh, a nip of whiskey.

A dress nipping, or I guess frostbite nipping at your toes.

Oh, yep, yep.

Your nose.

They said, my problem is, what single word in English has the most different meanings?

Good problem.

Now, this is a fun one because I took the problem on.

And then you said you'd also noticed this one come in from Torrin.

Yes.

And were also interested in it.

Yes.

And would be able to answer it properly.

Yes.

Whereas I was going to answer it ridiculously.

Because

what you could do for a problem like this is Google which word has the most meanings.

Which is what I did.

Correct.

And that's what one should do.

Yeah.

I, however, thought, well, can I work it out myself?

And famously, I have a text document with all the words, but I haven't got all the meanings.

It's just strings of text that have been used on the internet.

And I thought, well, to complete my collection, maybe I should have all the meanings.

Oh, gosh.

So I was like, How would I?

Because here's what I need to do: I need to get all the definitions of all the words,

and then for each one, write some terrible Python code to count how many definitions there are, and then put them all in a spreadsheet, and then sort them by number of definitions.

Yep, piece of cake.

So

I'm giving that a look right now that says, I've been here before.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And I've seen how it goes.

Then this time, what can go wrong?

Because last time, and by last time, I'm referring to the five words, five letters each, 25 different letters.

That was a computationally difficult challenge.

That was finding a set of words that all work together.

And the combinatorics of that get very complicated because there's lots of ways you can combine things.

This is just a sort.

It's just which has the the most.

Like that's computationally easy.

Yep.

Sorting a list is way quicker than finding combinations.

Matt, is this going to be like the famous a problem squared thing where we think something's going to be really simple and then it turns out to be far more complicated than we expect?

It feels like that, doesn't it?

So

there are several steps at which this could get complicated.

The first one was, how do I get all the definitions?

Yeah.

I couldn't find a dictionary you can can kind of download and easily access all the definitions.

You mean a thesaurus?

Yeah, that's the inverse question of what concept has the most words that can describe it.

What we're doing is which word has the most things it can describe.

Sure.

So for a dictionary, I then briefly dabbled in, is there like an old scan of a dictionary or an or a OCR, so a text version of a scan of like an out-of-date dictionary where I can just get a whole bunch of available data for all these definitions and that doesn't exist.

But then I found the fine people at Princeton University have put together WordNet, a lexical database for English.

If you're thinking, what is WordNet?

A lot of people must because the very first thing you see on the page is what is WordNet?

So in their words, WordNet is a large lexical database of English.

And so it's got words with definitions, but it's also got, like you were saying, it's also part thesaurus.

So it's kind of linking together words that have similar meanings.

And for every single word, it gives you all of its possible meanings.

Okay.

I was like, that's exactly what I need.

And I found someone has already written a way you can interface with it straight from Python.

Oh.

So PyDictionary, if you ask it for a definition, it takes care of the behind the scenes.

going off to WordNet.

Awesome.

Getting the definition?

Bringing it back.

I then had to find a list of words to ask for the definitions of.

I couldn't just say, hey, what are all the words?

And my other list of words is pretty terrible.

So actually, I found a new list of the 20,000 most common words

and thought, you know what?

If a word's going to have the most definitions, it's probably a very common word.

Okay.

My definition.

Okay.

So I took the 20,000 most common words, took out a bunch of...

You can include like the.

Well, I took out a bunch of crap ones, which

was the word crap no left the word crap in no no I meant the word the the word the is well it the doesn't have a definition on wordnet oh interesting

because it's more interested in in

like words that are like nouns or adjectives

whereas the is just the glue that holds everything else together yep they care more about meaning

So actually, and it threw me because the was one of the most common words.

Yeah, and so my code immediately failed because I was like, definition of the, which is like one of the first ones that went out.

And it came back with no, nothing.

I was like, what?

So then I had to do some more digging into WordNet about why they don't have the.

And then I was like, actually, you know what?

I don't really need words like that.

So in the end, I took out words that were like.

you know, pairs of letters or three letters in a row that we wouldn't really consider a word, but it's just something that's used a lot accidentally

in text.

Three letters in a row?

On the top of my head, for example, like one of the words might just be TT.

Okay.

Every letter appears in there by itself, and I don't think they all count as words.

Okay, yeah.

Yeah.

And I'm like, it's not really a word.

So I did some pre-pruning, and then I threw every single one of the remaining, you know, 19 something thousand words.

Took out TT.

Took out TT.

Threw them all at WordNet.

Yep.

And WordNet then took out more because it didn't didn't bother having definitions for them but i ended up with 16 441 definitions of words okay and these are the most common words so then i've got the spreadsheet here

i've got every single word and then the number of definitions that came back i had to write a bit more code to get the definition that comes back and that's like one big definition yeah and split it apart into individual definitions for the word and then count how many of those there are.

Okay.

And so I'm going to do it right now.

I'm going to sort

by

number of definitions, largest to smallest.

Go.

What did you find as the top word?

Let's compare.

Yeah, let's.

I've locked mine in.

I've sorted and I can see it at the top there.

Yep.

Well, for a long time, when they prepared the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary, it took them 70 years to do it.

70 years to prepare it?

They began in 1857 and the first edition was published in 1928.

Oh my goodness.

The longest word then, or the one, sorry, the one with the most definitions

was a three-letter word.

Oh.

Does that fit in with your

thing so far?

It was the word set.

If you go to the printed edition of that dictionary, you can see it occupies 32 full pages.

32 full pages.

75 columns with about 200 meanings.

Oh, my goodness.

There was an interview with an author in 2011

called Simon Winchester, who also writes the New York Times and wrote a verb for our frantic times, which was about the fact that a new word had overtaken the word.

Have

yeah.

Now, other words had overtaken set.

Yep.

Before I get to that,

in the 20th century, set was replaced by put.

Put.

You put things on a table,

put it on a piece of paper, you put downs.

But at least in 2011, this appears to still be the top one.

And at this point, in 2011, counted with 645 different meanings.

640?

That's ridiculous.

Was the word run.

Run.

Run.

Run

came in for me

with the third most definitions.

How many definitions did it count for?

57.

So not quite as extensive.

So I think, and this is me speculating on the fly, the reason we'll have a slightly different ranking is

I'm looking at a set of definitions which is a more stringent list.

They've only gone for top or very common definitions, let's say.

Whereas the one you're looking at is a more exhaustive

all the definitions possible.

Yeah.

Which I would argue is answering the question better.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, no, no, no.

If they're obscure, if they're not used, yeah, that they really count.

So the two words that beat rub.

It doesn't matter that there's some skeletons in the lounge room.

They were dead for ages.

No, it's not.

Not worry about that.

No,

it's like if the final answer was like, oh, it's overmorrow or like some archaic word that's not used anymore.

Yeah.

I bet not all those definitions are modern, frequently used definitions.

Now, you could argue that doesn't matter.

Yes.

And I do.

Which you are silently right now.

Yeah.

The two words that beat run

were break

and cut.

Oh.

Now, because I did this quite bluntly, like I've got every single word, I've got families of words.

So the top three.

Just by sorting by a number of definitions are break, breaks, and broken.

And I count that all as like the same kind of root family of words.

Also in the top 10 are broke and breaking.

Break wins, but that kind of family of words is big.

Cut and cuts and cutting.

Cutting is number 11, actually.

They're all right at the top.

And then run and runs were positions 9 and 10.

And then running is 13.

Set and put, so set comes in at 29,

but I haven't removed duplicate.

Like run and runs are both outranking it, for example.

Yeah, yeah.

So, in theory, I should collapse those down.

Set is there,

put

nine definitions.

So, the nine definitions for put, the option to sell a given stock, okay, makes sense as a verb, put into a certain place or abstract location, as a verb, cause to be in a certain state, cause to be in a certain relation.

Fine.

Formulate in a particular style or language.

Okay, put that in in context, I guess.

Attribute or give, make an investment, estimate, cause someone, yeah, cause, arrange thoughts, ideas, temporal events.

Yeah, so I think this is a real light touch

set of meanings, as opposed to the real

a lot of definitions.

And I reckon some of them I wouldn't actually see as very different.

It depends how you group them, isn't it?

Yep.

Did you say you just counted two letter words?

Not all of them.

Ones that I thought were legit words I I left them in.

Do you have go?

35 definitions.

Ah.

Position 91.

So in 2019, that had 368 definitions in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Oh, wow.

Yep.

Not that many here.

The one other thing I can do is the way the data came back, I could pull out nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and verbs.

I can actually resort the list just by what has the most meanings

that are all nouns.

So if I sort by number of nouns, largest to smallest,

the nouniest word,

head.

Oh, yeah.

I can believe that.

You've got a head on your shoulders.

You have a head of wheat.

Yeah, a head of beer.

Yeah.

But then it's also a verb to head off.

Well, yes.

Let's have a look here.

So that's got 33 noun definitions and nine verb definitions.

Should we find the one with the most verb definitions?

Yeah.

Sort by verb.

This is still very impressive, it's still kind of fun.

Like, yeah, the fact that I got the data myself, apart from the fact it makes it quite questionable,

does mean I've got it all.

I don't have to like chase nip comes or anything oh, let's find nip.

Let's let's end by with a nip.

Oh, verb is break, so that's one of the reasons why break absolutely hit the top.

Make is the second highest verb, give is the third, and then take.

So, I think it's break is the word with the most definitions.

Yep.

Experts disagree.

Also, back.

And I think head having the most nouns is interesting.

Second most nouniest word is line.

As in, like, to draw a line.

To draw a line.

Hmm.

What about nip?

Okay, fine, fine, fine.

To my document, nip.

Nip is coming in at position 1973.

Oh, nibbed at the post.

Yes,

tied with a lot of other words, but

these are the definitions I've got here.

A small drink of of liquor

the taste experienced when a savory condiment is taken into the mouth okay okay oh like it's oh oh it's got some nip got some nip when you have like a hot sauce or something i guess so yeah yeah no that tracks yep the property of being moderately cold yeah i mean bit nippy i used to think that the term bit nippy bit nippy but like was referring to the fact that when it's cold a bit nipply yeah it gets a bit nipply

but it's it's not a fact no it's not that a tart spicy quality.

A small, sharp bite or snip.

Squeeze lightly between the fingers.

Like a pinch.

And there's other ones.

And there's others.

So, there you are.

That's the benefit of getting all the data yourself.

You can answer more questions, but

the answers might be wrong.

Yeah, it's a trade-off.

I still think that was a very fun way of going about it.

But I'm like, how complicated can I make this?

Yeah, classic.

You've parked it.

Yeah.

I stopped short of buying a dictionary and scanning it in.

I did think you might do that

and then try and work out which words had the most

like space on the pages.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So there you are.

And on the upside, as well as having all the words, I now have all the definitions, which feels dangerous for me to now have.

Well, I need to ask, Matt, did ding come up on that list at all?

Oh, my goodness, ding.

Ending,

folding.

I don't think that's a word.

That's just a prefix.

So to be a post fix.

Post fix.

No, ding.

I haven't got it.

But ding means one thing, success.

Or according to the Oxford English Dictionary, to make a ringing sound, to mark or dent on the bodywork of a car or other vehicle.

Good dinged.

That's kind of it.

Well, we have now provided a new definition for the word ding, which means solved.

Which means the problem solved.

Can we get this definition added?

Certainly not.

Lexigraphical graffiti.

Let's do it, guys.

Let's find the Wikipedia entry for ding.

We said we'd only ever ever use our listeners for good.

No, we didn't.

Oh, no, we didn't.

You're right.

But before we use that ding as so well defined, we should probably get Torin to choose.

Oh, good point.

Which of us gets the ding?

Run versus break.

Yeah.

Break run.

Break run.

Run, break.

Brun.

Our next problem was sent in by a Matthew, one of many.

And this one, full name Matthew, went to the problem posing page at problemsquared.com and said that they have recently realized they've probably watched the Santa Claus.

That's a film.

Yes, the one with Tim Allen.

Tim Allen.

Yeah.

Become Santa.

The Santa Claus.

More than any other movie in their life.

Oh my goodness, Matthew.

They go on to say once per year they watch it every Christmas season.

And I got them wondering: given the annual dominance of Christmas movies and songs, is the most watched divided by listened, no, watched slash listened to piece of media of all time, a holiday movie slash song.

Beck, you've looked into this.

I have.

I have not, for the record, downloaded all the medias.

Yeah, you haven't watched them.

No, no, no.

Well, before I give you an answer, do you have a Christmas movie you watch every year?

Nope.

There's no piece of media in my life that's watched with a certain cadence for traditional reasons.

Wow.

What do you think your most watched film is?

Oh my goodness.

Most watched film would either be Toy Story 2 or Jurassic Park.

Okay, sorry.

Now, right, Jurassic Park makes sense.

But Toy Story 2.

Now that's because when I was at university,

young 18 or 19 year old Matthew found out that you could buy a month-long pass to the cinema to watch as many films as you wanted.

And I was visiting the UK on my break from uni in Australia.

Yep.

And so I had a lot of time to fill.

I had free movies for a month.

I realized in the one day there were five different screenings of Toy Story 2.

And I was like,

when else in my life?

This puts the year.

This is the most Matt Parker thing.

Like, that's so you to be like, let's see if I can watch all of them.

But you don't even have an audience there.

No, it's just me, literally, me by myself.

You're such a dork.

There wasn't even making content.

Just like, can I watch the same film five times in a row at the cinema?

And so you're in another country.

Yes.

And your first thought is,

stop it.

He wasn't sad at all.

So I watched the same film five times in a row

for zero extra marginal cost for the record.

I went out between the screenings.

So was it in the same room?

So you just stayed in.

No, I left in between.

Right.

You have to.

They just kick everyone out.

And then I had to come back in again on a new

guy really likes Toy Story too.

And in my head,

you look like you do now.

You don't look like an 18-year-old.

Which makes it creepier.

Yeah, no, no, no, no, no.

The point I'm making

since then as well.

Yes, I feel like we'll be too lost in the weeds.

What I'm trying to say is I don't tend to re-watch films that much.

And I feel like having a five-viewing head start

for Toy Story 2 is going to give it a decent lead that no other film's going to catch up with.

Yep.

I can't see another film.

that I've watched five times, definitely, other than Jurassic Park, to be in the same league.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I saw Lord of the Rings, I think, like seven times the first one when it came out.

That's a long watch.

Yeah, you're making fun of me for five Toy Story 2.

Not on the same day, though.

But I think it was like, it definitely was way more.

It was when there was no like streaming services or anything like that.

Every time I went to the movies with friends, I was like, oh, I haven't seen Lord of the Rings yet.

And so I just ended up with different friend groups.

Seeing it.

Towards the end, I was like, okay, I'm done now.

My Christmas movie is While You Were Sleeping.

My mum and I watch it together

every year.

So that's probably

the most overall because it's, I think that tradition started quite some time ago.

I found that quite hard to find the answer to this in terms of films.

Oh, really?

Well, I guess there's box office takings, but that's not really the same thing, is it?

Exactly.

If you Google most watched film of all time.

quite often the top one if you want to have a guess goodness it was probably one of the avatars titanic titanic still not one.

Comes up a lot.

But I think that's because of the box office takings.

And Avatar is also listed at the top.

But it doesn't necessarily mean it's the most viewed.

Titanic, I believe, they said it's the most viewed because then they were adding VHS and DVD sales.

Right, which were a big thing.

Yes.

In the past.

Yes.

And it's harder now that you've got.

things on different streaming platforms that are very guarded with their data.

Yeah.

So I did find this from James Kwon Lee, who's a film writer, director, and producer,

who said

quite often the most viewed film is listed as Avatar or Titanic because they set the box office record for highest grossing film worldwide.

But the average movie ticket price today is at least 10 times more expensive than what it was in the past.

Yeah, inflation.

Yeah.

Avatar was a 3D film, so it would have charged even more.

Ah, so they just go off pure box office,

fewer individual bums applied to seats.

Yeah.

So they said if we adjust the box office numbers for inflation, the most viewed movie could be seen as Gone with the Wind.

Oh.

Because more people paid to see that at the cinema.

Yes.

However,

in 1977, VHS started.

Yep.

You know what else happened in 1977?

Star Wars.

Star Wars episode four, A New Hope.

It's the second highest grossing film of all time when adjusting for inflation.

Released on VHS, Laserdisc.

It was re-released in 1997, re-released on DVD and Blu-ray.

The sorts of people who watch Star Wars tend to be kind of nerdy, obsessive people, or are they more casuals?

Yeah, in terms of people who like stability of repetition.

Is it category A?

Yeah,

yeah, surprisingly.

You might even say that like a Christmas or seasonal film.

There is a time of year that people might watch.

There is.

Might watch it.

So obviously every May the 4th may the 4th a lot of people get together and have watch parties people have suspected it's the most pirated movie of all time oh that's interesting yep that could be a strong contender yep but that depends on what sources we are yes going

where's your data coming from because you could also argue that the most translated film of all time means it's had a much wider view

if it's been translated into loads of different languages billions of more people can see it Exactly.

In 2022,

with the Guinness Book of World Records, most translated film in history.

Yep.

Having been translated and available for download in 1,977 languages.

That's too many.

As of two years ago.

Is

the Jesus film.

The Jesus film.

It was a film made in 1979.

And it's basically meant to be just the book of Luke, I think it's based on.

Was it not Jesus, the film?

It's just called

Jesus.

Oh, just Jesus.

Yeah, but you, but quite often it's talked about as the Jesus film.

What are you watching?

Jesus.

Film.

Yeah, it does sound a bit like, oh, I'm a bit shocked.

Yeah, it's based on the book of Luke.

And apparently it's basically, they've just tried to go literally.

Beat for beep.

Beat for beat.

This is what it is.

And they claim.

And I say they claim because

it's hard to.

I feel like you can translate anything you want into any language.

It doesn't mean people who speak that language are going to watch it or consume it.

No.

And I feel like there's

additional motivation for people to be translating the Jesus film.

Yeah, you don't say.

So in 2020,

the people behind the Jesus Film project, which the whole aim was to get the film seen by as many people as possible.

How about that?

It said that...

It had been viewed over 8.1 billion times.

That's everyone.

By over 4 billion people.

Oh, that's half of everyone.

Making it overwhelmingly the most watched movie of all time.

Now, there are detractors.

There's an evangelical leader, Vinay Samuel, former executive director of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Mission Theologians.

Sounds like they'll be on board with the Jesus.

You'd think this is how, this is what I mean.

When the people criticizing it are the people who would be.

Like, well, hang on.

They said, these numbers are, to say the least, not gathered in a social scientific way.

We have no way of knowing this.

Yes, how about that a research firm apparently calculated the known viewings of the film from 1979 to 2015 as greater than 7.3 billion yeah no

so there's a lot it has been smuggled into many countries do you know what when i see if i show you pictures of it because i was like what and then when i i saw sort of the images i was like well you know when i like you're sick at home during the day and you're just watching like whatever's on tv like if you see the this jesus

and now for a start that's jesus i'm going to call him Jesus classic.

It's classic black.

That's the opposite of classic Jesus.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's the most Caucasian Jesus I've seen in my life.

Yeah.

So Jesus was played by Brian Deacon.

He's British.

Interestingly, the film never had any credits in it because the whole point was to just try and get the point across rather than it to be about anything else.

So the makers of it have never tried to claim royalties or anything like that.

It gets uploaded to YouTube all the time.

They never try and claim but take it down because they, yeah.

So it turns out, potentially, the most viewed thing would be some propaganda.

And I say this as a Christian.

You're talking about Star Wars?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's it.

This is about a guy who didn't really know his dad.

So your answer is Luke Skywalker or Luke the Book of.

Oh, very nice.

Thank you.

Okay, so we've just had some extra information from substitute camera guy Alex,

who's my regular camera guy, sitting in the gus,

who said, actually, Star Wars, A New Hope, aka episode four, is a Passover story

because it's the protagonist discovering that they are the son of the bad guy and then leading people somewhere.

Yeah.

Because there's that bit in the nativity where Jesus is really good at racing.

Yeah.

He said, this is manger racing.

Yeah.

What are they?

X-Wings?

what no it's not an x-wing the pod race i'm sorry exactly

genuinely

dismissive and

you've never looked at me so and like i've said a lot of stupid things in my life i just did not expect the whiplash of a setup to pod racing and then you're like what are they x-wings like what

Because if I'd gotten, like, if I didn't know what they called it all, you would have forgiven me.

But the the fact that I said

you had all the bits around it and then you're like what X-Wings

unbelievable We'll see that that's the same face that that's the sound of people unsubscribing to

100% it's we've even got the word pod in there you've never seen that face from me before because you've never whipped a chair out from me as I'm trying to sit down

well

I did find the only thing I could find in terms of streaming figures and stuff, I thought maybe that would be interesting.

The one I could find actual numbers for was Disney, Disney's number one streamed film, which is obviously just specifically Disney.

Disney Disney.

Take your Disney.

Disney Business.

What do they say?

Moanna.

Moanna.

Audiences have watched 80 billion minutes worth of it, which equates to watching it 748 million times.

It's just long.

I know it's the frozen of a new generation.

Okay.

But that wasn't the only part of the question.

That wasn't any of the question.

well the other part of the question was what's the most listened to song is that also a seasonal thing okay yep

i have just gone with streamed

because it was hard to find all the numbers of everything else and i would potentially say there's an argument that in the modern era we listen to way more recorded music than ever before in human history yes so i suspect streaming's not a bad metric yeah

and so Spotify have got their most streamed songs.

So the most streamed Christmas song on Spotify is

Mariah Carey's All I Want for Christmas,

which has been played as of the time that I looked this up and since it was released when Spotify opened.

Yep.

1,896,169,847 times.

I imagine that's gone up since this has been recorded.

That went up while you were saying it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's a lot.

It's a lot.

1.9 billion.

Yeah.

But the most streamed song of all time on Spotify so far

was a song called Blinding Lights by The Weekend.

What?

Which has been streamed 4.5 billion times.

No.

And is it far and away the most streamed or are there kind of a bunch of songs at that level?

A bunch of songs.

Shape of You by Ed Sheeran.

Yeah.

4.1 billion.

Okay, okay.

Someone you loved by Louis Capoldi.

69 billion.

For a very popular modern era Spotify generation song, what kind of figures are normal?

So I guess big ones are hitting the ones of billions.

Yeah.

The weekend.

I genuinely thought this was a

song from the 80s that got like a big...

Popular again.

Yeah, yeah.

So I'm going to say that this is down to TikTok.

Oh, you're going to blame TikTok?

Yeah.

Because that song just went properly viral with people doing dances to it.

Yep.

That's

potentially the biggest achievement of humankind.

Blinding lights by the Wiccan.

Wickend.

So there you go.

Matthew.

Matthew.

Now, my theory as to why it's not a holiday thing,

partially, not everyone celebrates Christmas.

Correct.

Most people don't.

Also, there are so many many Christmas films out there that, yes, you might watch the Santa Claus every year.

Yep.

But I think I've seen it maybe three times in my life.

I think I've sufficiently answered the question is what I'm saying.

Well, what I think is interesting is just taking Spotify modern era songs, the big popular songs are twice as many streams as the top Christmas song.

Yeah.

So that does say potentially it's not necessarily a piece of Christmas media that will get the top spot.

Yeah.

And if there's any evangelicals out there get yourself a little jesus tick tock get get jesus out there yeah and i i think star was star was

until proven otherwise yeah look i'll i'll jump on board with that great feels right yeah excellent matthew let us know it's if you're happy with that it's the same amount of source data that we've been given by the Jesus by everything else exactly yeah I don't feel like I can ding or unding or de-ding or anything here

let's let Matthew as their Christmas gift give us a dingle bell.

Give us a dingle bells.

We should have saved that for the Christmas episode.

Well, this is technically that one.

Oh, this is it.

Oh, Merry Christmas, everyone.

Listen to this episode every year.

There's a traditional.

Oh, yes.

Oh, could you imagine?

Imagine, oh, it's time to listen to Matt be disappointed at Beck that you didn't know about pod racing.

We should do like Christmas.

Listen to this on May the 4th and Christmas.

And then we'll double our listeners.

We'll succeed.

We'll get them.

In a year's time, I I want to look back at the stats for this and everyone be like why

episode listen to so much more

after our lovely starter and main course lovingly cooked at home

we're like a home cooked meal I forgot on these cold

winter or autumn nights winter I think I always forget when the seasons start.

It's time for our dessert.

Any other business?

That was good.

You really landed it.

You stuck the landing.

Thank you.

Our first bit of Any Other Business is actually an announcement from us

that we're going to start putting some small sections of our podcasts out on YouTube as video.

Yeah, moments where I've accidentally said X-Wings.

I think that's going to make the highlight real.

We'll pull those bits out and we'll put them on YouTube so people can enjoy them in their video form.

However, if you just listen to the audio version of this, you will notice no change in what we're doing because we're still recording the podcast as normal, just with cameras in the room.

Yeah.

So, we'll link to our YouTube channel in the video description.

There's a little bell, isn't there?

You can't hit the bell.

If they hit the bell, hit the bell for the ding.

Oh, my goodness.

Ding that bell.

You'll get notified when we start uploading the videos.

Yes.

Final bit of any other business is

we raised this in a previous episode.

I forget how it came up, but we're discussing people who may listen to this podcast, but not consume any other media either one of us is in yeah because we for a long time assumed podcast listeners are either people who follow your comedy work or people who watch my videos

who want more in the back verse or the matte verse yep and they come to a problem square we hypothesized that maybe there were some people who were only podcast

We've had two people.

Which we found very funny.

Which we thought was very funny.

We've had two people.

So the near miss,

josiah here says that they watched matt's youtube channel and started listening to the podcast when i mentioned it since then this was five years ago it's almost like you should mention it more often it's almost like that's okay valid point it's a long-running thing i should mention this on youtube more often they in the last five years have only watched four more of my youtube videos Maybe you shouldn't mention it more often.

I'd love to know what four.

Maybe everyone will move over to this and stop watching your videos.

That's what I'm really here for.

You know what the answer is?

Josiah is going to stop listening to this and start watching the clips on YouTube.

Oh, yeah.

It'll come full circle.

Yeah, yeah.

So, oh, Josiah then realized they had previously seen one of your flip chart videos.

I've had that a few times where people are like, I didn't realize that I was familiar with your work.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So Josiah is like someone who started on my channel and was aware of your work and has now been fully drawn into almost completely problem squared.

Ellie, however, ellie here says that they found both of us via problem squared and while they have read humble pie which is a book that i wrote they otherwise consume no media from either of us aside from this 100 emoji podcast yes so ellie i think is this fabled listener who did dabble reading one of my books They're just on the side.

Yeah, but it was like, this isn't enough.

There is no podcast.

So we have, there's at least one person in that set of people that's great it's not an empty set no brilliant i mean i won't say it's not insulting but someone went this is the peak amount of you that i want this is it no i'm happy with that i feel like the point of doing a podcast as well as a youtube channel as well as writing books as well as everything else yeah speaking for myself is to hit different audiences.

Like if I want to get more people excited about mathematics, well, we didn't put it out everywhere.

We have different friends for different purposes as well don't we like i have friends who i meet up with if i want to watch a dumb movie i've got friends that i meet up with if i'm feeling sad yeah and want some sage advice i've got friends that i meet up with to do cryptic crosswords with you haven't covered me yet but carry on well how have you got

i've got friends i meet up with when i want to list all the categories of friends i've got

yeah that's right exactly i've got friends who i do podcasts with because i wouldn't meet up with them otherwise it is

we We would.

We would like to.

We wouldn't.

We wouldn't.

This means that we.

This happens.

Yes.

Yeah.

So I think it makes sense that there are some people out there who are like, you are my content creators for this.

Yes.

And I don't need you to be able to do that.

And that states my entire need.

Or you can.

Yeah, 100%.

That's fine.

For other people in the LE set, we appreciate you immensely.

Yeah.

Keep it up.

However, if you are a big fan of either of our work from other things,

feel free to share them amongst yourselves i want to know the four videos what four videos brought josiah back josiah what were they

you know what i don't care how you consume us

i don't care whether you only listen to this and nothing else what i do care about is your sweet sweet cash

No, we love all of our listeners equally.

You are all important.

Yes.

We especially like to thank thank the listeners who make this show possible by donating increments of money to us a certain time basis.

That's vague.

We thank them by naming three of them and pronouncing their names as terribly as possible on each episode.

And on this episode, the random names we've drawn are

Robenap IR

The Land Trough

Roby

No, roby retail

or i'd go

roberte

roberte

if you would like to support us on patreon there is a link in the show notes or you can just look up a problem squared on patreon.com you will also get access to our special bonus podcast i'm a wizard in which matt and i are very silly and warming up for the show and you'll get some other bonus stuff as well in fact are we still taking people who are signing up for the if people sign up?

We will

we can try and post you your holiday card.

Won't make it by Christmas.

We'll definitely email it to you by Christmas.

Yeah.

I also want to thank you, Matt.

Me.

Matt's Parker.

That's me.

Yeah.

Thanks for watching who are like a warm dinner roll.

Oh, we're doing melodies on the way out.

Yeah, in that you're fresh and buttery.

I was going to say you're raising the standards, but no, I really,

the other co-host.

And I also want to especially thank our wonderful producer, Lauren Armstrong Carter, who is the soup bowl.

The soup bowl.

In that she helped serve the delicious home-cooked meal that is this podcast.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We should probably also thank other people who are involved in the show now.

Blah, blah, blah.

We like you too.

Okay, back.

Matt.

Yes.

I three

hit.

Yes.

F seven

hit.

Yes.

Blow for blow.

It's happening.