Plot Synopsis

Using CGI animations, science demonstrations and super slo-mo cinematography, a host introduces the most spectacular and painful user-generated video clips and then explains the science behind the subjects' failure and humiliation. In each half-hour episode of SCIENCE OF STUPID, the host introduces multiple stunts that have gone wrong -- from the Cannonball Ice Dude to belly-flop fails and from paragliders colliding with trees to average people Batman-ing. Then after pausing, rewinding, and replaying the video, he analyzes the situation to determine exactly what went wrong and why. The host explains the physics, chemistry and biology at play -- looking at everything including weight, volume, momentum, combustion, energy, and more -- and then presents forensic details to explain the stupidity that resulted in failure. SCIENCE OF STUPID is based on an international format that uses similar videos and animations, but each country has its own host using slightly different dialogue. Before this series premiered in the United States with Seth Herzog as host for the first season, other versions premiered on regional Nat Geo channels in these countries: the UK, with TOP GEAR's Richard Hammond as presenter; and the Philippines, with host Ramon Bautista.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SCIENCE OF STUPID returned for a new season on Friday, July 17, 2015 from 8:30-10pm ET/PT, as Nat Geo premiered three back-to-back new episodes. In the night's first episode (8:30pm), "Ice Buckets and Kayaks," host Richard Hammond reveals the many ways there are to embarrass, injure and humiliate yourself when kayaking without water, bouncing on a slackline and taking on the ice bucket challenge. See what happens when elastic potential energy releases its potential and the worst way to balance a moving center of mass. Then, in the night's second episode (9pm), "Barbecues and Hammocks," people embarrass and injure themselves when lighting a barbecue, swinging in a hammock and cornering at speed. These people laughed at science and suffered the consequences. The program reveals what went wrong and why by explaining the principles of gravitational potential energy, turning effect of force, trajectory and that naughty boy momentum. Finally, the night's third installment (9:30pm), "Surfing on Sand and Walking in Heels," check out the many ways to injure and humiliate yourself when walking in heels, surfing on sand and climbing a tree. SCIENCE OF STUPID explains what went wrong -- and why -- by pinpointing the scientific principles behind center of mass and conservation of momentum, by exploring the relationship between force and perpendicular distance, between catwalk and compression forces, and what is fact and fiction when it comes to friction.