Make and play this 'Le pendu' game

'Le Pendu' is a French term for a hanged man - not a jolly topic, but it was a folk toy that required some skill to play. Rob shows you how to make one of your own with a few simple household things.

[@turpialito]

These guys are absolutely brilliant. Cheers.

[@CuriosityShow]

Many more at kzbin.info - please spread the word - Rob

[@zalibecquerel3463]

This is my very favourite all-time Curiosity Show sketch. I must have made a dozen of these things over the years. My house had a beanbag, which was good to raid, and I found the best sort of box was a "Strepsils" throat lozenge box. Using a bendy straw set to 90 degrees made the whole process much faster :) Thanks so much for the upload!

[@CuriosityShow]

And that would have earned you fewer comments than my tobacco tin in the isochronous curve segment, but i agree with you 100% on the value of making things out of everyday stuff - Rob

[@peter_castle]

"My house had a beanbag": one of the beanbag definitions according to google: a large cushion filled with polystyrene beads and used as a seat.

[@zalibecquerel3463]

@@peter_castle Found in every Australian living room in the 1970s and 1980s :)

[@peter_castle]

​@@zalibecquerel3463 I just got notified you replied. Thank you so much! I value that information a lot, I would have NEVER know that if you didn't say it, awesome!. As a south American, this show on KZbin is introducing me to Australia! I read Rob and Deane comments and others, and learn a lot about it. For example conversations about the goon bag, hills hoist, and of course every other video has australian places, or singaporean or from pacific, which I hardly see anywhere, it's like a new world.

[@zalibecquerel3463]

@@peter_castle Heh, every good Australian party ends up in the back yard with the goon bag pegged to the hills hoist :)

[@lordrampenthump422]

CuriosityShow : Get a plastic straw they are pretty easy to come by. 2022: Yea right!

[@allosaurusfragilis7782]

Wish I'd found this channel before I retired from teaching!

[@karlmarxstolemybike3382]

This channel makes me WANT to become a teacher.

[@JLvatron]

I misread that as 'acting', lol!

[@nielshaentjens5758]

That’s pretty clever actually

[@CuriosityShow]

Yes, it is frustratingly hard to do - Rob

[@johjoh4571]

lol how many tries did it take to get it that first time

[@Turambar3791]

legend says that later was the gillotine game XD

[@NinjaKirk]

That looks fun! Thank you

[@CuriosityShow]

No problem Lots more at kzbin.info - subscribe if you haven't already - Rob

[@philb4462]

Rob said "blow him off"! 😁

[@dabb1up520]

Wow.. a toy you can make, that hangs someone and its ok! awesome!

[@alcaldealer8515]

Thanks for sharing with us and the show!

[@cejaybee]

This was my most-favourite Curiousity Show project...

[@CuriosityShow]

Excellent, thanks. Lots more at kzbin.info - subscribe if you haven't already - Rob

[@edwells4769]

Can anyone explain to me why they don't make shows like this anymore? Every kids show is manipulative garbage these days.

[@brandonbrown2652]

I hate how comments like this get no love

[@Stothehighest]

This would actually be a pretty good toy for kids that have breathing issues. It mimics pursed-lip breathing quite a lot.

[@CuriosityShow]

A great idea - playing trumpet works for me - Rob

[@ZacCarpenter]

So they didn't have bendy straws back then?

[@christophersavignon4191]

The bendy straw wouldn't be stable enough, so you'd need extra stabilization. It also needs some extra space for the bend.

[@happyhonker123]

You could easily poke the bendy straw from the bottom of the box for stability and cut off the tip if its too long. Easier than being a pseudo- plumber

[@christophersavignon4191]

@@happyhonker123 For that you would need to pad out the space between the box and the straw, to accomodate for the curvature of the bend. And you need a perfectly placed hole, as correcting the position is much harder once the hole is in place. This technique also allows to link more than one straw, or create branching connections. Last but not least, it is meant to be a show that teaches kids. What is better, learning how to buy something, or learning how to make ends meet with what you have, along with some deformative geometry and a basis for some real-life repair skills?

[@CuriosityShow]

You are spot on. We always tried to use stuff that kids could find around the house and didn't have to buy - no fun if you live in a country town with few shops and someone tells you to buy something essential before you can get started. We would build our prototypes out of anything - balsa - electric flex- acetate sheet - dowels- and then see how we could convert them into stuff kids already had access to - foam meat trays - aluminium foil - shirt box lids- straws - there is a lot of pleasure in making something that works out of rubbish. - Rob

[@zalibecquerel3463]

@@christophersavignon4191 The bendy straw was stable enough. I assure you.

[@JLvatron]

Morbid game, but great!

[@aclaynation2914]

Forget the kids i gotta try this my self

[@CuriosityShow]

My pleasure., Heaps more at kzbin.info - why not subscribe if you haven't ?- Rob

[@Maninawig]

Neat! Will definitely have to do this with my nephews

[@chickenman297]

Hands up if you're old enough to remember 1c pieces

[@Barbutt]

Here’s a fun game folks played in France between beheadings.

[@smadaf]

Were bendy straws hard to come by then and there?

[@seededsoul]

+1 for morbid children’s toys lol. but a mention of Bernouli’s Principle would have been nice.

[@CuriosityShow]

If a child made it, it worked and they wanted to know why THEN i would tell them about Bernoulli as they would be primed to want to know, and I would show them other things to make that used his principle as they would them be involved and motivated. First things first - Rob

[@seededsoul]

CuriosityShow Thanks for replying, love your show.

[@peter_castle]

Physics+artistic ingenuity to make a phenomena very heartwarming!

[@helifalic]

Before computers/internet and the abundance of luxury goods we have today people really had to be inventive to entertain themselves. 100 years ago I might have been playing Le Pendu instead of watching a video about it.

[@jrace4179]

Not many Aussie kids have even seen a 1c piece thesr day since they discontinued them back in the mid 90s.

[@GravityBoy72]

Better than Playstation.

[@ShubhamParikh]

Wooow supper cool

[@poopy2010tative]

What materials did they use originally?

[@cadetri9716]

The materials were quite different before the French bendy straw ban of 1441

[@barrypuccini6142]

@@cadetri9716 The ban of course leading to the word 'courbé' or 'bent' being used to describe dishonesty after certain members of the French aristocracy began selling contraband bendy straws illegally.

[@CuriosityShow]

Hard to say. Whatever came to hand or could be made from wood and thin metal sheet, I expect - Rob

[@TheDuckofDoom.]

bird bones, clay, and reeds

[@MrMichaeljay1965]

Very cool!

[@CuriosityShow]

Lots more at kzbin.info and if you haven't subscribed, we'd be happy to have you along - Rob

[@MrMichaeljay1965]

@@CuriosityShow No worries - I'm already a subscriber!

[@timhinchcliffe5372]

This was back to a time before bendy straws were invented. Such simpler times...

[@adrianohaha7659]

1:28 get a plastic straw... fy greta!

[@I_WANT_MY_SLAW]

Why not just use a bendy straw?

[@Sirenhound]

1 cent piece? Aargh!

[@smadaf]

File the polystyrene-foam ball outside. The bliss before we understood the danger of microplastic pollution.

[@manlymanyo2511]

Far Out

[@CristiNeagu]

1:18 Not lately...

[@ivanabraham]

Finally an anti-gravitation device that works!

[@TechsScience]

But today's childs busy with thier video game or mobile phone

[@UncleJessie86]

Says a channel called Techs Science. lol

[@paulbolus9399]

Or KZbin

[@thepantweaver]

You millennials get off my lawn!!!

[@ngdukic]

@@CuriosityShow Moist children? I gather you mean "most" children? hahaha!

[@trouaconti7812]

Computers took all the charm away. Kids are nerding in coding or playing minecraft. Their future looks boring. Not necessarily bad tho

[@Supposedlyimrightwingnow]

Such simple times where they didn't worry about plastic clogging our seas. Honestly you couldn't make this on TV now for all the ethical reasons. Being a kid in the 70s and 80s was just the best wasn't it?

[@turbofan67]

Yep, just making our own fun.

[@Graknorke]

Wow yes so great to carelessly ruin the environment for future generations. Very cool gen X.

[@leoangere5310]

Graknorke makes a good point, albeit in an annoyingly condescending tone. The 90s were my "simpler times", but I now believe the good old days were an illusion. The ocean was getting polluted decades ago, but we can only now start to see why that might be a serious problem before too long.

[@turbofan67]

@@Graknorke Yeah, we ruined the environment by riding our bikes and skateboards and swimming in creeks. The following generations are so attached to their powered devices that they couldn't be surgically removed. The only straws I saw were the paper ones in milkshakes from the corner store.

[@Graknorke]

@@turbofan67 If you think the biggest environmental problems are people using phones then you've got absolutely no sense of perspective. It is and has always been industrial. Deforestation, mining, producing goods, etc. And if you think the 70s were some naturalistic ideal then you must have been a child because it definitely wasn't. Leaded petrol, CFCs, increasing production of (generally unnecessary or wasteful) consumer goods as China liberalised, a huge amount of deforestation of tropical rainforests, and probably more things I can't think of off the top of by head. Just because you personally couldn't see it doesn't mean it wasn't happening, and you definitely shouldn't gloat about it having happened.

[@Hiltibold]

Time changes everything: Plastic straws are banned in my country for absurd reason since last year. We can't do this anymore ;)

[@CuriosityShow]

Going that way here, too, but paper straws will work or even straws you make yourself our of rolled paper and glue - Rob

[@SomeOne-eo7rw]

If the reason is ecology I don't think it is really absurd.

[@davidmcguire6043]

@@SomeOne-eo7rw hope you like being wrong. Plastic drinking straws are not the problem they're just a distraction so the people that are causing a real problems can make you look at the straws and ignore what the hell they're doing

[@SomeOne-eo7rw]

@@davidmcguire6043 I like learning for sure. I'd agree it's an absurd - or at least ineffective - way to fight pollution, but the reason in itself is not absurd. The reason is pollution; the means is banning plastic straws. The means are not sufficient. A more exact sentence would have been "plastic straws are absurdly banned in my country since last year"

[@hadzhere]

ah yes the 80s...when plastic straws were "easy to come by"...rip plastic straws rip

[@nomekop777]

Rip I'm in commiefornia