Hollywood's Quest to Introduce the Wacky World of Smell-o-Vision

[@TodayIFoundOut]

Go to thld.co/sheath_brainfood_0322 and use code BRAINFOOD at checkout to get 20% off your order! Thanks to SHEATH for sponsoring today’s video.

[@fredred8371]

video starts at 1:15

[@tywallace2379]

modern underwear ad in a video about smell-o-vision. Ironic.

[@DanielLeaf]

CRAZY how ya made a video of this, the other day I JUST finished telling my kids at work about how I saw the “Spy Kids 4D” movie! And it had the little smellovision cards!

[@2lefThumbs]

Wouldn't want to observe a "sheath underwear" advert on that medium, right?

[@AnOldGeezer420]

They did the same thing for The Wild Thorneberries Movie.

[@oxfanblink4115]

That was insane but awesome! 😃 Apart from when you had to scratch the cheese and baby food and mess numbers 😷

[@AnOldGeezer420]

@@oxfanblink4115 didn't they have one for Donnie's underwear too? lol

[@oxfanblink4115]

@@AnOldGeezer420 Think so 😂

[@jacquelinealbin7712]

The smells from that Rugrats movie card live rent-free in my head 2 decades later

[@wreckingopossum]

When I was growing up we used to always joke that it was a shame smell-o-vision didn't exist whenever we were watching "Dirty Jobs" with Mike Rowe.

[@lestranged]

the only tv shows I wish had smell-o-vision is cooking shows. but I also want taste-o-vision and to reach into the tv and grab the food and eat it!

[@Michaelkaydee]

Smell-O-Vision works in real life though... a café can pump scents of coffee and pastries into the street as pedestrians walk by... hard to resist going in

[@jaspr1999]

The one thing I love about entertainment trends today is the increasingly prevalent choices in video games. Something I never would have imagined playing games in arcades as a kid in the 70s. As more and more complex stories with multiple endings are told with games more people are migrating to them. There will always be room for a single story on a screen but the more options that are made available to interactive stories the more popular they seem to become.

[@RedPandaGames.]

They tried to show us this at Epcot Disneyworld - even at 8 years old I queried it. It would be so invasive to put a smell into the air of someone’s home, and weird if it got hacked 😂

[@yurdp]

John Waters- “I love that I can make people pay to smell sh¡+.”

[@Kid_illithid]

I’m so glad this never caught on. I have a super sensitive snout. I’m not allergic to any foods, but all kinds of candles, colognes, perfumes, natural scents and anything else you can think of mess me up. I wear unscented deodorant to prevent allergy attacks

[@GrinderCB]

I saw "Polyester" when it came out in the 80's. When the movie started there was an introduction to Odorama hosted by the scientist who allegedly invented it. He took the audience through a demonstration using film of a person in a rose garden with appropriate flower scent. But after the movie itself started we never got any nice smells like flowers, just bad things like a baby's soiled diaper, a gas leak from an oven, a filthy worker's stinky armpits, etc.

[@antitheziz717]

where did they procure the armpit juice 🤔

[@stevem.o.1185]

@@antitheziz717 Divine

[@antitheziz717]

@@stevem.o.1185 eww

[@xeroterragoth1866]

Sheath's slogan should just be "Comforta-balls" I'm trademarking that sh*t j/k lol

[@Zephaniah700]

If this ever really took off for TV, I would leave my set on the Food Network all day.

[@BlackTomorrowMusic]

"Does this smell like chloroform?" Whole audience passes out.

[@Billhatestheinternet]

Or cocaine.

[@PoliticalGamer420]

As somebody with PTSD I can confirm that smells can trigger a lot of things. Good and bad. Lol

[@bsadewitz]

Would you say, then, that you were always prone to intense recall of certain kinds of memories even before the traumatic experience(s)?

[@joesmith323]

I remember the smell of my first girlfriend's lipstick - from 50 years ago.

[@inyrui]

As someone who has the sense of smell, I can also confirm smells can trigger a lot of things

[@robertlogan4652]

As someone else with PTSD I will say scent is my second biggest connection to past experiences. The worst being dreams where all senses are there like your actually there, right down to temperature. I don't know which works is fake when I wake up sometimes for a min or two. Is this real cuz it feels exactly the same as the dream except it won't end when I get uncomfortable. Sex in dreams is even anazing. HOW?

[@PoliticalGamer420]

@@bsadewitz I wouldn't know. I had a traumatic childhood. It started before my first memory.

[@welovemrp00]

Smellovision has been a personal passion project of mine for years. Someday we'll crack it!

[@lp-xl9ld]

In the Bugs Bunny cartoon "The Old Grey Hare", Elmer is projected into the future and he sees a newspaper with a headline "Smellavision Replaces Television!" A secondary headline reads "Carl Stalling says 'It'll never work!'" (Stalling being the composer of the music for Warner cartoons.) Never realized someone actually tried it...

[@joebenzz]

That one Prankster working in theaters: "It's free real estate!"

[@jamesslick4790]

I haven't laughed at an ad in a while, but "...inverted kangaroo pouch for your...Eh...little Joey." legit made me LOL.

[@jb888888888]

The intro suggests that electrified seating was a widespread phenomenon. It was used for only one film, _The Tingler._

[@RyanMonoxide]

I can’t wait till my racing simulator at home has scents piped in like: Burning rubber Roasted clutch Hot brakes Oil leak Fuel leak Coolant leak Dirt, grass And the best would be when you unlock or purchase a new car, new car smell (available in cloth and leather) lol.

[@pagebarto6761]

I've got John waters polyester on DVD in a big box set and it came with the smell card but since it had been sitting so long ago the smells just kind of blended together.

[@barrywerdell2614]

There is a movie titled "Matinee" about a shlock movie producer/writer/director who specialized in this kind of gimmick movie making. So he premiered his latest gem of a movie "Mant" (half man half ant) with all its analog special effects in a theater in Florida. Unfortunately, the Cuban missile crisis premiered at the same time.

[@johnfyten3392]

This idea could go sideways real fast

[@geebsterswats]

Love the video, but how could you omit “Married With Children’s” Smell-o-Vision! It was heavily advertised in the early 90s and was a bit of fun. I also remember that show doing 3D, but that could be a false memory, or I’m confusing it with another FOX show. Iirc, it was 4 shows on one night, all with a different gimmick

[@thisguy8106]

I remember a night of 3D television.. I know Home Improvement was part of the lineup..

[@stevem.o.1185]

@@thisguy8106 oh yeah ... I remember watching a re-run of the 3-d home improvement episode and being very confused.

[@jayphilbin2871]

Being from Baltimore, (Maryland) I remember the use of “scratch & sniff” cards for John Waters’ 1981 film “Polyester”. It was billed as ‘Odorama’.

[@maxhand1562]

I still have my Odorama cards from Polyester. I went with a date to see it and my sister and her fiance turned up right behind us in line.

[@Bacopa68]

I saw the movie in college. We had Odorama cards from John Waters himself some people from school made a pilgrimage to see Waters and he gave them Odorama cards and a little "No Smoking" announcement starring Waters himself.

[@AshtonM99]

One of my earliest memories is seeing the Rugrats movie with that scratch n' sniff card.

[@ZippoX05]

Early 1900's cinema: ah yes, we must increase the sweetness of the scent with some fine lead dust

[@SteveBakerIsHere]

I actually worked on an experimental smell-o-vision system for the Venturer "simulator ride" shown here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulator_ride (basically a small theater with hydraulic motion). We found that it's surprisingly easy to purchase scents for a wide variety of specific effects - and vaporizing microscopic amounts of these fluids and injecting them into the airconditioner under computer control is extremely easy. The MAJOR problem is to REMOVE the scent when you don't need it anymore. We tried all manner of air filters and such - but as you said, it takes time for your nose to "reset" - so you can't "cut" between scenes - transitions have to be EXTREMELY gradual (several minutes per scent change). We struggled to make it work - but eventually abandoned it. Honestly it's a disaster. The slow pace of smell changes just doesn't fit well with fast action. You also have to make the scent so SUBTLE that the audience are only just barely aware of it - or they be nauseated by it. The effect - if done with great subtlety - is not unrealistic when used realistically. But for the faster pace of an action movie or a video game - it's hopeless. Additionally, in an airconditioned space - you can't recirculate the air because the scents build up in the A/C filters - and you need a high flow rate (which tends to be noisy). So instead, you you have to recondition 100% of the air - which is expensive in very hot/cold climates. I'm honestly surprised that switching scents worked as well as was claimed in those old-time movie theatres. I think it's a dead-end technology...in the ways you'd like to have it (fast action, scene-cuts) you can't make it work - so you're stuck with glacial pacing for your entertainment so that your audiences' noses can keep up with the performance.

[@KlaximumSkroeft]

Imagine smellovision in a period piece set in medieval London, ahh, the past was truly the worst.

[@mjacwest]

I went to a 4D show at Universal Studios when I was a kid. It was a Shrek short. All I remember is a part with spiders running across the ground or something and a burst of air blasted out onto our feet. One of my favorite "games" in arcades as a kid was the chairs where you got in behind the curtain and there was a video playing like you were on a virtual Rollercoaster or driving a racecar/plane and things like that, and the seat would rumble and turn, I think some of them even strapped you in and let you go upside down. I think something physical like that would be cool for action movies, or even moreso horror movies. Put the jump into jump scare!

[@HugoHugunin]

15:05 that dude is a dead ringer for Raul Julia as Gomez Addams in _The Addams Family_ movie.

[@darkavenger1989]

Hi Simon, one small correction: House of Wax was actually released in April, 1953. It was he third American 3D feature of the 1950s, following Bwana Devil and Columbia's Man in the Dark. 3D actually started in 1915 with a short called Jim the Penman. The first 3D feature was 1922's The Power of Love. There were several 3D features and shorts in the 1920s before experimentation in sound took over. A few 3D shorts including 3 from Pete Smith followed in the 1930s and 1940s before being backburnered due to World War II. The golden age of 3D went from 1952 with Bwana Devil and ended in 1955 with Revenge of the Creature. A total of 50 Amercian 3D features were shot in the 1950s, though not all were released that way.

[@jmanj3917]

I saw one of those movies at Disneyworld decades ago. I don't remember anything about the movie, I just remember the metal seat posts shooting out orange smells.

[@drewc9940]

i still remember seeing the wild thornberries movie with smellovision

[@zulimi]

To be fair, I was really impressed with California Adventure's Soarin'. They do not reveal it is smell-o-vision, so suddenly you are gliding above an orange grove and it smells exactly like one.

[@Supersquishyawesomeness]

Literally the only episode of SpongeBob I saw was at a 4D theater in Chicago at the museum. All I remember is they pumped in air that smelled like pickles and you’d get misted like someone sneezed.

[@dingleberryhandpump802]

One thing I always found odd about the Sheath sales pitch is the line "the same company that makes... your sister's bra". Idk what company makes my sister's bras, nor do I want to, because I don't live in Alabama.

[@tremorsfan]

I remember when the movie Chef came out how I wished that they would bring back Smell-o-Vision.

[@st.anselmsfire3547]

There was a real opportunity to try it again when "The Nutty Professor" came out.

[@extremerambling]

Noel Edmond's House Party had some kind of scratch 'n' sniff for Children in Need in the 90s.

[@therackstar]

Who else has been watching Simon Whistler for years now?

[@jackgibsxxx0750]

Well if you watch all his chs every day then an yr can seem like 10 yrs. Then again he is so good it might seem like just mins.

[@anonymousvampire9572]

Holy christ dude! You about made me have a heart attack when you said "Netflix's 2008 experiment Black Mirror Bandersnatch". Like, I know I'm getting old and the years just fly by now, but knew there had to be no way that it was 14 years ago. Even the fact 2018 was 4 years ago already scares me.

[@AeroGuy07]

Anyone else remember Chef Tell from PM Magazine in the late 70s and 80s? His catchphrase was "I wish you smell-o-vision."

[@RedSlashAce]

I make a smell-o-vision device called the Cilia. It was on Linus Tech Tips the year before last, and the newer wearable version at CES this year.

[@cardioandfriends]

It looks way too reliant on third party. I’ll be leaving flowers on the grave of the company in a couple of years

[@RedSlashAce]

@@cardioandfriends I make them in my garage to order. So... Unless I am also pushing up the daisies I intend on keeping on producing them.

[@ChopBassMan]

I just watched the "Skinwalker Ranch" video on your Decoding The Unknown channel. The picture of Uinta County (4'53" into the video) that you used has an interesting group of round, sunken areas which are in a relatively straight line which look interesting. Maybe you could do a Geographics video on them. I imagine that they might be volcanic collapses, but I haven't seen anything like that before. The supervolcano in Yosemite has below ground geography similar to this, due to continental drift - but the several crater-like objects in the picture are all above ground.

[@robertkobus5266]

Hoarders would be a great show for smell o vision!

[@HippoOnABicycle]

A movie theatre opened in my city a few years ago that has a version of smell-o-visiion. It's a 4DX theatre that on top of smell-o-vision has stuff like shaking seats, sprays of myst and even snow falling from the ceiling. Haven't tried it yet but I'm going to see Dr Strange there next month.

[@ashproof]

I know it's coming, but I watched the wild thornberries / rug rat crossover with the scratch and sniff from... burger king I think?

[@theloyaltraitor]

Yes, it was Burger King.

[@maninblk]

Polyester! (1981) Divine! I remember when this was in the theater. Your ticket came with an Odorama: scratch-and-sniff cards.

[@jb888888888]

Carl Stalling sez "It Will Never Work!"

[@AndrewDarlow]

Outstanding presentation, thank you! That Henny Youngman joke was very funny!

[@_am.ber_]

Omg I was just telling my boyfriend last night about the Nickelodeon smell o vision they did!

[@iteerrex8166]

Just a few scents through the HVAC, plus heating or cooling the air, would be a much more simple robust and effective system.

[@kathryncumberland]

They literally did that and Simon talked about it in this video, lol.

[@iteerrex8166]

@@kathryncumberland Yes I know, I add heating and cooling beyond the comfort level, to future enhance the mood. A simple robust system, even with less effect, is much better than a touchy complicated one. I did not offer a redesign.

[@Sevenfeet0]

Of course cartoon fans remember the 1944 Looney Tunes cartoon “The Old Gray Hare” where a Smell-o-vision joke was made before it was a real thing in the 50s.

[@jonahfalcon1970]

William Hearst pumped in the scent of flowers for one of his Marion Davies flicks.

[@Arc115YT]

I saw the Rugrats go Wild movie in smell-o-vision when it came out in 2003. They just gave you a little card with various labeled scratch and sniff sections. I got it at Burger King. Looking closer, it's actually the card in the thumbnail. The root beer and strawberry I remember smelling fantastic.

[@sirlaundrybasket4647]

When they introduce smell o vision too cloudy with a chance of meatballs would you dare watch it?

[@tigershirew7409]

And now there is 4DX which does it all, motion, scent, environment. Very limited number of Cineplex theaters here in Canada - I don't think there are any on the west coast. And not sure how many there are across the US. Not sure if there are any outside of North America.

[@MrDarthT]

14:54 "Netflix's two-thousand and eight experiment, 'Black Mirror: Bandersnatch'"? "Bandersnatch" was released in 2018.

[@jb888888888]

"with round black eyeglasses" _[shows picture of man with round _*_steel-colored_*_ eyeglasses]_

[@barrypettit4955]

3 of us rode horses to Minot ND theater to watch a western. People behind us said I can smell the horses. True Smell O vision fact 1967.

[@BigStank]

The Rugrats Go Wild Rugrats/Wild Thornberrys crossover had smell cards in Burger King kids meals. Me and my brother would scratch the feet smell and put it under my dad's nose while he was asleep in his dad chair.

[@lestranged]

I saw Polyester in "Odorama". I had the scratch and sniff card at some point but I either threw it out or lost it in a move.

[@alexandrialucius8351]

Smell o Vision makes me think of the campy 80s movie Popcorn. It has film students use Smell o Vision while doing a midnight movie.

[@Melissa0774]

It's to bad Disney didn't do it for Fantasia. It would've set a president. They could've marketed a line of collectible, limited edition kid's perfumes for different movies, that smell like things from the movies. In the early 90's, I used to have a Little Mermaid travel kit that came with this distinctive, blue body spray that I loved. That's the kind of thing I have in mind.

[@ms.donaldson2533]

The had a smellovision show at the power plant in Baltimore in late 80s. Omnimax in Las Vegas was like that too.

[@ladykoiwolfe]

I remember those days. Now on with the video. I remember a different movie that had smell-o-vision cards than the ones you mentioned. They were gross smells but I think they were supposed to be mystery smells until it was time to scratch them. It's really weird, because I know it was in the early 90's. I can't remember the movie, and I can't find and reference to a movie released for home viewing or on tv at that time with smell-o-vision.

[@SotonSam]

I didn't understand the film, I had a cold lol

[@yoursotruly]

Did SNL do a bit where they had Feel-o-Vision and had an usher behind every seat smacking them in the head or feeling them up and probably choking them? I remember seeing something but don't know exactly where or what it was called, Does anyone remember that?

[@zackakai5173]

That thumbnail unlocked some core memories

[@flyeaglesfly9212]

This brings back so many childhood memories!

[@johnstevenson9956]

I can't imagine what chemicals were used to create all these different smells. What were theater-goers inhaling?

[@DrDaveW]

Assuming the sound and vision are good, the only other thing I want is a comfy seat with good legroom and a clear view. Thankfully cinemas are making that a priority now.

[@MyrajusEleen]

Ah, yes. Overstimulation. That'll definitely make the movie more memorable! :)

[@phasm42]

I lost my sense of smell in an accident five years ago. I miss it ☹

[@Michaelkaydee]

Their error was in telling the audience that there was smellovision... should have been subliminally introduced

[@fvckyoutubescensorshipandt2718]

Why not just skip that step and work on making an accurate computer-brain interface that works both ways (not just moving a dot on a screen with your mind)? If it stimulates all senses and not just sight, sound and smell it would be better than a holodeck and something like a Matrix. No need for stupid screens, speakers, or oddbadd chemicals getting sprayed everywhere. Plus if an audience member wanted they could pick their own POV (ie as a ghost floating above the action, from the POV of the main or supporting characters, etc). Damn, the 21st century sucks almost as bad as all the previous ones.

[@skyycaptain90]

you should do a video on the myth, legend, lore and history of Caledonia.

[@sunnyquinn3888]

We've created sight and sound recording and distribution because sight and sound are humans' primary senses. If dogs had human level intelligence (and opposable thumbs), they would most likely have invented smellovision. If we want to bad enough, we'll get there eventually. The question is, do we really?

[@michaelpipkin9942]

This and flying cars were supposed to happen by now. I mean we hoped for hoverboards too but those two things were definitely supposed to happen.

[@N_0968]

Teleportation will probably never happen. Sigh.

[@violenceisfun991]

@@N_0968 meth though 👌

[@DarkGodSeti]

Who doesn't want to smell a zombie flick? And all the smells of a battlefield!

[@Michaelkaydee]

These ideas aren't really outlandish... they're the early attempts to a fully immersive experience... someday, now that smartphones and modern TVs and "glasses" give us everything we want at any time, to get people to part with Legal Tender to go watch something at a theatre, it will need to be extra special... someday, the theatre experience will be sight (3D, holograms, etc), surround sound, scent, temp and sensation...

[@quinnzykir]

The tingler. Where just shaking your hands counts as a paragraph in sign language

[@tessanichole2544]

The sponsor stole the show though- I’m still laughing!

[@amygeyer1166]

I went to a movie in the 70’s that handed out a scratch n sniff card with ticket. Turns out it was the 80’s and the movie was Polyester

[@violenceisfun991]

Was the movie any good?

[@kathryncumberland]

I thought he was going to say "origami," but it was "oregano," lol.

[@teksett]

This video was even better with the smell o vision card they sent me thanks!

[@Otokichi786]

What does a Hollyweird dumpster fire movie smell like? Like a crematorium, where franchises are burned to ash and "scattered to the wind."

[@jamesleatherwood5125]

16.34 a novel scent-imatic experience! lol

[@whoawhoapop1984]

I've had this idea for years!!

[@barrydysert2974]

4:06 "cosmology the science of odors" made my blood boil 😤🚬😑 Cosmology is the science of the Cosmos 🤓 NOT of cosmetics 🙄 Cosmology is science that seeks to explain everything that IS 😇 Shame on the Editor! Tiny mistakes in crucial matters cost dearly ⚡️🙏⚡️💜🆙

[@lp-xl9ld]

But "osmology" IS the study of odors. Must have been what he was trying to say.

[@harperlane3936]

Lol this unlocked a memory I forgot completely about 🤣🤣🤣🤣 they had it for the rugrats movie back in the day

[@TheEvilCommenter]

Good video 👍

[@OAlem]

I invented the word Smell-o-Vision in 1977, in 1st grade. I wrote about it even.

[@ianmathwiz7]

Rugrats Go Wild was my only experience with this concept.

[@dagmarbeeke6163]

I love how speak so neatly 👌🏼

[@fredred8371]

Video starts at 1:15

[@TheElnots]

"like a fart in a sofa" XD

[@MarkMichalowski]

Those pants really are a solution in search of a problem - LOL! But a better fit for a video title is probably not to be found anywhere! :)