QI S02E11 - Synesthesia

[CaptainSpamurai]

For me Monday is red, Sunday is white and all the rest are different shades of blue, except for friday which has no particular colour. funny that.

[UnawareLights]

I'm not the only one :D Although I don't stop just at days of the week, most words generate a colour. It irritates me when I'm writing a paragraph and I use 'blue words' and 'red words' THEY CLASH.. He he, and my brother/friends called me crazy :D

Monday - DEFINITELY RED (not blue, in no world will Monday's ever be blue)

Tuesdays - Yellow

Wednesday - Blue

Thursday - Autumn leaves, whatever colour that is

Friday - Black

Saturday - Pink & White

Sunday - A beautiful goldenish orange (like a sunset)

[pottermaniac4292]

I do not have synesthesia (wish I did, it sounds like a lovely experience) but I have always thought Thursday was purple and Tuesday was orange. I don't think of a definite color for any of the other days.

[Ssquires93]

I have synesthesia with all senses, i can hear, taste, smell, and even FEEL different colours

Monday - Blue

Tuesday - Bright Green

Wednesday - Orange

Thursday - Purple

Friday - Red

Saturday - Purple

Sunday - White/Gray (bit fuzy sunday is)

[xShakespearex]

Monday - Yellow

Tuesday - Bright Blue

Wednesday - Emerald

Thursday - Navy Blue

Friday - Red

Saturday - Purple

Sunday - White

[fivesilvercoins]

Aww, I'm sad they didn't take up the lexical-gustatory kind. Apparently it's rare, I've never encountered anyone else who has it.

Incidentally, Monday is most definitely white. *high five Stephen*

[bumsex4me]

That girl is fuckin annoying, not funny

[bloodbath2345]

Monday - red

Tuesday - blue

Wednesday - orange

Thursday - dark green

Friday - black

[Kaizerworks]

Monday - Pale grey

Tuesday - Lime green

Wednesday - Burnt Orange

Thursday - Dark green

Friday - Brown

Saturday - Orange-yellow

Sunday - Yellow

[siliconface]

D: My goodness, how could anyone think Monday is BLUE?! Its certainly not. Infact, I don't think any day of the week is blue for me... no, because Mondays are sortof pink (but a dull pink, like... peptobismol), and Tuesdays are most certainly green, Wednesdays definately pink aswell, Thursdays are sort of orange or tan, Fridays are black, Saturdays are white, and Sundays are white.

[JHAllen123]

@RedNails93

[Allicana13]

Monday's not blue, it's yellow, with a slight green tint! Tuesday is forest green, kind of like august, and Wednesday is orange.

[latrokatipo]

@Allicana13 No! You're wrong! Monday's ochre, Tuesday is bright lemon yellow and no mistake! August is completely different it is orangey green! And Wednesday is dark midnight blue...(lol hello fellow synaesthete!)

[pinky12488]

Synees unite!!

[Bearsir]

My girlfriend has synesthesia

[MrEdLoop]

Holy shit. Every single example Stephen gave at the end from that composer matched up with my own.

[Randimony]

Interesting I had lime green too for the chord with an undertone of purple.

[KitchenKiller95]

Monday - blue, yellow, white

Tuesday - blue, white, light pink

Wednesday - green, yellow

Thursday - black, red, brown

Friday - light pink, white, purple

Saturday - purple, deep blue

Sunday - black

mmmm i never thought i imagined so much white and yellow

[KitchenKiller95]

MARK GATISS!!!

[slightlyinsaneFTW]

I'm synesthesic...

[VamLoveAndKisses]

Monday - Deepish blue

Tuesday - Yellow

Wednesday - Orange

Thursday - Purple

Friday - White

Saturday - Pink

Sunday - Black

[Metatality]

Monday-Red

Tuesday-Lime Green

Wednesday-Dark Blue

Thursday-Dark Green/Brown

Friday-Yellow

Saturday-Bright Yellow/Pink

Sunday-White

[PXR05]

Monday - White

Tuesday - Magenta

Wednesday - Orange

Thursday - Purple

Friday - Gold

Saturday - Black

Sunday - Yellow

I saw a documentary on this. Some have sound synethesia to such an extent that even the sound of e.g. waves hitting the beach produces an orchestra of colour.

[NovieLove]

@PXR05

I do. When i was a kid, counselors would call it a 'disorder,' but it's how i have composed music my whole life. Every chord has a few different colors in it. I find that if i start writing a lot of blue songs, which are D, dark blue is G and Gm, it's usually because there isn't enough actual blue in my environment.

[visualeffectschannel]

@kiwimci

I get the idea, yea! :o

[kalkie4545]

Monday - blue

Tuesday - yellow

Wednesday - dark green

Thursday - orange

Friday - magenta

Saturday - purple

Sunday - red

[hjenkinz]

@kalkie4545 nobody cares

[WalterLiddy]

This is absolute bullshit - QI is usually great but this is nonsense. We think of Monday as blue because of "Blue Monday".

[Phaze252]

@WalterLiddy

Yes, and Fry sees Monday as white, and considering they all have there own subjective choice of colors through the days of week....So it must be bullshit because you think it is.

[ukdj35]

@sargentaaron2004 Nope..

[rainmillr]

Has anyone has pointed out that that's not an Eb major chord. It's an Ebsus4: Eb, Ab, and Bb. Which sounds (and looks, for the synesthetes) completely different.

[vanmanradio]

@rainmillr Exactly! I heard it on TV and had to find it on youtube to make sure I wasn't mistaken. Is that lame of me? I don't know. haha.

[mikkabouzu]

@rainmillr Yeah, I noticed that and commented on an earlier cut-out video of this particular clip. The account associated with it got deleted though. Guess the sound man goofed.

I don't have synesthesia, but I do have absolute pitch.

It seems to me that Fry is playing up the commonness of synesthesia.... I understand that mild forms (days of week or month seem like a geometric pattern or color) are relatively so, but the extreme forms (seeing colors with letters or musical notes) are quite rare.

[rainmillr]

@mikkabouzu I don't have synesthesia either, and I only have good relative pitch.

I know someone who is a true synesthete, and who reads in colour. If type is in certain colours they have a hard time reading it because the colours of the letters don't match up with the colours they would regularily see.

I wonder if you could 'train' someone to have something similar to synesthesia the way some music schools can train very good pitch...

[kikikattz]

@mikkabouzu Sorry to sound like a know-it-all, but seeing letters and numbers in specific colors is the most common type of synesthesia. Seeing colors with music or spoken word are reasonably common too. The weird ones are when people see number lines spread out in from of them and getting taste from sound. Synethesia isn't all that uncommon itself either. Just ask around and you'll probably find a few people you know who have it.

I apologize for the mini-rant.

[mikkabouzu]

@kikikattz Not at all; it appears that you are right. I stand corrected on that note (badum chh). I do actually know several people who are synesthetes IRL.One of them has both synesthesia and absolute pitch, and for her,music produces colors.I find it Quite Interesting (how appropriate), because for her out of tune instruments or voices actually *look* wrong, i.e.,the colors clash, whereas for me (also have AP) it has to do with the particular tone of a note or key which just *sounds* distinct.

[MrAudiovideodisco]

Cross-sensory perception is a similar experience often found when under the influence of hallucinogens / Entheogens such as LSD or Psilocybin.

Seeing and tasting sounds, tasting colors, feeling colors, and sometimes experiencing one sensation such as being tickled across all five senses... It's quite rare though.

[ukdj35]

Linda Smith wasn't really funny though was she....

[sargentaaron2004]

@ukdj35 funnier than you, that is enough

[Matty09Magic]

monday blue, tuesday green, wednesday matt red, thursday yellow, friday shiny red, saturday shiny dark blue, sunday lilac

[ZedLeppelin1989]

Porcupine Tree ftw!

[PruneProductions]

I actually thought of yellow (not the exact "sunny yellow" as described in the video) with that note... Cool :D

[MizzYEAHYEAHYEAH]

I got lilac with that note.

[kiwimci]

I never think of colours but week days and the months of the year are sort of... spatially set out for me. Does that make sense to anyone? I can't really explain but for example, to me January to May goes down a slope, then June to August is high up on the same level, then September to the end of the year are like listed in a seperate block.

I also do this with numbers and the alphabet too, does ANYONE think like this? Or am I nuttier than Squirrel shit?

[mackiemachine3]

@kiwimci oh yes I get what you mean, its called 'Number form', it means you create graphs for dates, years, months, timelines, numbers, alphabet, anything with an order. I have it too, along with grapheme colour synesthesia, so i make coloured graphs :P

[Matty09Magic]

@kiwimci i can understand the psycology but i dont personally get it

[RedNails93]

Thank god for this video, I thought I was the only one who associated colours with days of the week!

When I told my Mum she thought I was a total nutcase.

[Drtruman]

the way the music starts and you see Linda and then the other chap......I actually thought 'what a nice couple they would make'! lol

[6pwner]

dammit im seeing colors, when i heard it the first time, there were no colors

[lytrigian]

Hmm. That chord sounded yellow to me too.

[TheVillta]

Linda Smith was such a top lady. R.I.P

[yummyotter45]

I have exopathic synesthesia which means every letter someone says i process as a colour so i have an amazing memory because i remember the colour sequence of the letters. But i cannot read those tests where the letters in the word are muddled up because the colours are in the wrong order

[dasmysteryman12]

Most people think synesthesia is weird, but I find it interesting.

[thewildone]

@dasmysteryman12

I find it purple.

[VamLoveAndKisses]

Monday - Deep blue

Tuesday - Yellow

Wednesday - Orange

Thursday - Deep green

Friday - Black

Saturday - White

Sunday - Grey

[hideyourloveaway128]

"I don't care if Monday's blue, Tuesday's gray and Wednesday too..."

[xXLuciferDarkheartXx]

@hideyourloveaway128 "Thursday, I don't care about you, it's Friday, I'm in love"

[MamaMario13]

For me Monday is red

[missgracegallagher]

@MamaMario13 Me too!!

[hideyourloveaway128]

@MamaMario13 Same for me!  I've always thought red in association with Monday.

[TheRainstorm97]

@MamaMario13 Same :3

[Cyberwaste138]

Synesthesia is a brilliant song by AFI (:

[JTProud]

The word "beard" tastes like red wine to me. No idea why.

[ildish]

@JTProud beard beard beard beard beard beard!! you drunk yet?

[greengrendel]

I do wish I had musical synestesia. But my parents already make fun of me if I say a word makes me think of a colour. People without synestesia do tend to be terribly rude about it.

[purklefluff]

@greengrendel i haven't found people to be particularly rude about it, but then again i don't big it up or make a point of telling people about it either.

i've got fairly pronounced colour synesthesia, which crosses over with most senses and phenomena, rather than just being limited to sounds or words.

[DudeL26710]

I love the way Stephen pronounces "mem-MAS and the pep-PAS."

[Caconymic]

That song was yellow

[hideyourloveaway128]

@Caconymic I agree. That chord of music was yellow!

[bibhuna]

@hideyourloveaway128 SAme, for me major chords are yellow.

[357Snowball]

Mondays red, Tuesday is turquoise, Wednesday is dark blue, Thursday is brown, Friday is deep purple, Saturday is yellow or orange and Sunday is fusia pink.

[CaramelCleo]

In America I have never heard of this show which sucks because these few clips I've seen have really entertained me. I wish we had more shows like this here.

[McFearsome2]

most people will associate monday with blue just because of the New Order song...

[bbagginz]

Hmm, that last chord played was not Eb major, but Ebsus4

[aarandir]

@bbagginz You're right. Where's that third gone!

[LilMissP1992]

Monday for me is yellow, tuesday green, wednesday is orange, thursday is blue, friday is red, saturday is pink and sunday is purple, but thats just me. I used to think every1 saw colours like this, wierd. Thank u qi and siriuslyCold for educating me!!

[xxkerrazyxx]

Monday is pink for me :)

[pastryhat]

if you want a simalar expierience drop acid and listen to music lol. really though interesting condition. theres something simalar where you can TASTE the notes, certain ones are salty, tangy, sweet, spicy, etc. anyone know what that ones called??

[TheFounderUtopia]

@pastryhat

That is also synesthesia. Fry didn't explain it very well... Synesthesia is when you experience any non-related sensory information in response to a specific stimuli. Tasting sounds, hearing colours, seeing touch, etc.

[pastryhat]

@TheFounderUtopia oh ok that makes sense.

[edthewave]

@pastryhat That's still synesthesia

[BlueEyedCelt]

I can't Imagine life without my gift, it is my best friend & teacher, you see & feel things in ways that are difficult to describe to people without the sight, I see music as coloured wisps of dancing smoke drifting off into time & other manifestations, it is perspective & a "quirky" wonderful gift from creation that's beautiful & sacred to me.

Peace. x

[KayosHybrid]

I have synesthesia and I don't know why everyone's mentioning it as an affliction. It's more of a neurological condition, but exactly what it is is vague due to lack of research or something. I see all words, letters and numbers in colours, since as far as I can remember, back when I was learning the alphabet. But it's the most common kind and I wonder what it must be like to have other cross-sensory....things XD

[somberlight]

somehow the idea of those other cross-sensory things made me giggle. think about if you could poke things to see how would they taste like, quite literally xD sorry, i know im tired xD

[medea1990]

I also have synesthesia. I turn sounds into pictures. For instance, that song "Monday, monday" is totally yellow. But there are some other songs or pieces with many, many colors. For example... the 9th Dvorak's symphony.

Best wishes and enjoy the colors.

Medea1990

[SexyBabe12121]

@KayosHybrid if you see words as colours, what happens when it is coloured text, for example your username is blue, what do you see?

[purklefluff]

@SexyBabe12121 well if it's not the right colour for you, it tends to just look wrong.

one misconception is that the sensing of colours with other things happens in such a way as if you were seeing it with your eyes, but this is not the case. it's a mind's eye thing. you sense it, rather than just see it..... for example, i don't see colours when i hear sounds. i HEAR colours. it's a crossing of sensory data in the brain.

[KayosHybrid]

@SexyBabe12121

The actual colour of the text doesn't matter, I still get the same colour code and rules. They're generally unique to each person I think. Even if a chunk of text is rainbow coloured, I still can tell pretty clearly. It's something that seems to happen between my eyes and the text, if you know what I mean.

[Jemmarghh]

I kinda wish I had synesthesia.

[Flossie710]

I've always known (and I mean as long as I can remember, as a very small child) that in my feeling/head/mental picture :

Monday is yellow, tuesday is light brownish/beige, wednesday is bright red, thursday is dark green, friday is dark brown, saturday is grey and sunday is black.

It's not that I see the colour when I'm talking about doing something on a given day but whenever I think of THE monday, as an archetype, then it just yellow and it's never changed, nor will it ever I think.

[jakamneziak]

i wasn't sure about calling it an affliction but i cant see it as a disease and condition to me sounds too generic. So i went with affliction. Not sure if it was the correct adjective to describe the term but i went with it. So what would re the correct adjective?

[jakamneziak]

trying to explain to someone like me how synathesia works is fine but trying to explain how one lives with this affliction is impossible to convey. On a serious question does one see synaethesia in a positive light or negative light and what problems/benefits can this provide?

[spidaminida]

Synesthesia (which the spellcheck doesn't recognise, nor the word spellcheck ironically) seems to be a useful tool rather than a negatively impactful one. For example, people who have an automatic faculty for maths frequently describe pictorial representation of numbers.

I suppose that this ability taken to the extreme frequently results in autism (or vice versa) so it probably depends on the magnitude of the synesthesic (new word, it's mine but you can use it) effect.

[neonom1024]

@jakamneziak - it's not an affliction. people refer to synesthesia as some kind of disease or "condition". it's not like it affects anybody's health or anything

[ADragonAmongRoses]

it depends on the circumstance. I believe that syneathesia is a brain's method to learn external information eg my odd numbers are lighter than my evens, so maybe my brain decided to categorize numerical information visually in order to help me understand numbers as a kid. but it can be negative if u try to use it to remember study notes eg i always get concave and convex mixed up because convex is darker to me so i think IT'S the inverted one. So i just use it to think of nice baby names, lol!

[leelbelu]

RIP Linda Smith

[xipoddyx]

The bit where stephen goes on to explain the man that saw colours wasn't in the original show shown on bbc or even later on dave you must have found this clip somewhere new =p

[medea1990]

I have synesthesia and I see images and colors when I listen to music.

Sometimes I see just colored circles that move and sometimes even a whole story with characters.

The piece which has more images it's the Molto vivace of the 9th Symphony by Dvorak.

I recomend to all to listen to it, because I think it's one of the most beautiful music pieces ever done.

[teufelstaub]

There's also the consideration of the days through the gods they were named for and their colours:Sunna /yellow, Moon/white, Tiw/ red, Odin/blue, Thor/red, Frey/ green and Saturn /black.

[geyter6]

See that doesn't make sense. Thor is a whitey bluey kinda thing, like the Marvel people tell us.

And Saturn isn't black, it has rings. Nobody can imagine a planet with rings that's black. I dare ya. Seriously. Takes a hell of a lot of imagination.

(which nobody has these days)

Sun isn't yellow, the moon isn't white. Tiw is red though. No doubt about that. He's like the god of One Punch Mickey.

Anyway what I meant to say was: My Saturday is Purple. A mix of anger and unfulfilled expectations.

[teufelstaub]

Sorry,since I don't share this ability,I was just going off one of those Asatru charts.I do agree that days can trigger emotions,but only when the day is in full swing,not because of a preconceived notion of the day ahead.

[Canadianabanana]

I think of all the days of the week as being black on a white background. I might think of them as being coloured at times, but its hard to consciously think about.

[ELuhn]

I also see them as black on a white background. Holidays appear red on a white background, usually with small lettering under it. This is especially vivid when I'm looking at my desk organizer.

[ackajacka]

The last chord Stephen plays isn't actually Eb Major, it's an Eb sus4. It's the first chord in 'Cold as Ice' by Foreigner, and that's all in triggers in my head, haha.

[Bobstew68]

I was just about to say the same (minus the "Cold as Ice" part), how on earth do they make THAT mistake? Did they ask someone who knows hardly anything about music to make those chords? In which case I really doubt the rest of the facts they come up with. Hopefully it was just a mix-up due to files with similar names or something.

[ackajacka]

Well it could easily be human error, they probably had the sound guy reading notes out of a book. It's very easy to screw up musical notation when you aren't fluent in it, but I'm sure the facts used are all true.

[Bobstew68]

Well, for instance what they said about teenage boys communicating by farting (not in this vid), as in they fart in specific directions to warn against danger.. I have a hard time finding references to that elsewhere, so for all I know, it could be from a small obscure experiment under questionable terms.

Well, I do enjoy QI regardless. But it's more fun when I can verify things. The multiple senses thing, for instance, was brilliant.

[allconspirer]

I give different types of people colours, slightly posh people like Stephen (Mamars and the papars) are usually beige, annoying people are black... yeah I'm weird!

[migetX]

Believe me that is not weird I do the same except more individually. I look at a person and think what colour they would be (especially if I know the person) but Stephen... hmm... I see him as more dark aquamarine. In my mind I saw both dark blue and dark green and it kind of merged together when I think of Stephen. Now if thats not weird then I don't know what is...

[WildxLemon]

my tuesday is yellow too xD

[BillandBenRgangstas]

I've always thought of Eb maj as something like a light green.

oh well rimsky knows best.

[emanfirstlast]

i have this, i also have a different type when you 'give' numbers personalitys, like 3 is a young girl, really annoying and a bit fat, shes related to number 1, who is a young boy which is about 4 or 5 years old, also 3 is yellow while 1 is red, just like the days of week, also the days of week can have personality's as well but often there not always happy or sad

[josephdrew87]

I would say:

Monday - blue

Tuesday - yellow

Wednesday - green

Thursday - orange

Friday - black

Saturday - brown

Sunday - white

[somberlight]

i dont have this one, but oddly enough, my "thing" is about scents; there is four places in the world i remember in an instant if certain scent is around. the strange thing is that i dont remember there being any scents around, and if there were, it wasnt the same what triggers it. mind is a weird thing, mine even more so xD its not a hassle or anything, but one has to wonder whats going in my head, heh.

[weirdloopyloo]

For me words are coloured by the main letter in the name.

monday - red (o)

tuesday - pink (not sure... it just is)

wednesday - green (e)

thursday - blue (u)

friday - yellow (f)

saturday - red (a)

sunday - purple (u)

[ADragonAmongRoses]

@weirdloopyloo we have a and u in common :P but i'm not gonna lie, i shuddered when i read ur o and f, lol. but that's cuz o is a very strong (and my only) blue colour, it's cool though that both our mondays are our o's colours :)

[ELuhn]

I had an epiphany once, when I went to a Van Gogh exhibit. There was one landscape with a gnarled tree in the midst, standing proud of the canvas by an inch and a half. It suddenly occurred to me that the shape of the tree had a "tangible" motion to it. My pet theory now is that Van Gogh had synesthesia; the reason for his brushstrokes was that he was trying to convey visually the movement he felt with his eyes.

[ArgentumKalibrum]

Congratulations on publishing it through the esteemed medium of YouTube comments. ^___^

[orpingtondood]

lol i have synesthesia i dont get the big fuss lol

[velocityeleven]

Monday - Red

Tuesday - Yellow

Wednesday - Blue

Thursday - Brown

Friday - Purple

Saturday - Orange

Sunday - Green

as for those musical sounds, I agree with Alan both times

[RachieRAINBOWS]

Monday-White

Tuesday-Green

Wednesday-Yellow

Thursday-Cyan

Friday-Red

Saturday-Purple/Blue

Sunday-Black

Stephen + Alan are so freaking adorable :)

[NotaFro]

i don't get anything like that and had never heard of Synesthesia before this. i'm rather disappointed as it seems to make things less boring

[agnY]

If they were on acid they'd be good at it too :P

[Pieter345]

monday - red

tuesday - yellow

wednesday - green

thursday - dark blue

friday - bright red

saturday - bright brown

sunday - dark black

i have it also with syllabels letters cyphers and so on, its awesome for rememberingn ames, if i dont remember the name i remember the colour and i can track down some letters that have to be in it and sometimes i find it again^^