Hi, I'm John Green, welcome to my salon - hello, mustachioed me - this is mental_floss on YouTube...

1. ...and according to the Internet, if I put my iPhone inside of this toilet paper roll thing, it'll turn into a speaker. Let's see how it works. Yeah, I'm going to go ahead and rate that one a fail. That is the first of many of the Internet's "life hacks" that I'm going to test out for you today - we've all seen the memes; now, we're going to do the science.

(intro music)

2. Okay, while I have my phone out, let's see if it can really be leaned against sunglasses to make for better mobile video viewing. No... no... yeah, fail.

3. Alright, while you're watching the latest episode of mental_floss, you maybe want to crack open an ice-cold bottle of soda, but you have no way to open it, unless you have your laptop charger, apparently! OOHHHHHH! (opened!) Pass!

4. But maybe you're over 21, and would prefer a glass of wine. You don't have a corkscrew. No problem, apparently, because the Internet tells me that all I need is a hammer and a nail. Alright... yeah, no. The nail just comes right out. Life hacks? More like, "lie hacks"!

5. But actually it's 9 o'clock in the morning, so I don't want to drink; all I want is my standard, morning Diet Dr. Pepper. Which I will now drink with the straw inserted through the tab, to prevent the straw from bobbing up and down. Mmm! Pass!

6. Okay, now we're going to attempt the life hack of taking these fire-hot Doritos and sealing them without a chip clip! Okay, so we roll this down... and we pinch off with the thumbs, about an inch there... unroll, and re-roll... WHAT? PASS!

7. Also according to the Internet, you can turn this bag into its own, like, chip bowl, by doing this. Roll from the bottom, roll from the bottom... wow! Chip bowl! The Internet does know a thing or two about eating chips! Mmm... you can just almost smell the smoke coming off of the heat of the chips!

The next few involve like ovens, which is really not my area of expertise, so Mark, go to your kitchen, and do what I tell you to do.

8. Okay, so first, take a pot of water that is in danger of boiling over. Now, put a wooden spoon on top of the pot. Did it stop it from boiling over? Obvious fail.

9. Okay, and while you've got that wooden spoon, the Internet tells us that it will fit into the little slot on the pot handle. And of course, it does not; fail.

10. I'm also going to make you do the next one, because apparently, it is possible to fold a fitted sheet, which we all know is untrue. And sure enough, here Mark is fail to fold a fitted sheet into a perfect square.

11. Cutting cherry tomatoes can be time consuming, but apparently, if I stick them between two Tupperware lids, I can cut them all at once. Let's try it. Yeah, no. This is ridiculous. I cut a few of them! To quote the great Crocodile Dundee, "I might have succeeded with a bigger knife." But yeah, with this size knife and those size tomatoes, definite fail.

12. Now I'm going to chop onions while chewing gum, to see if that keeps me from crying. You know what? It works! This is an actual life hack! I did not cry while chopping this onion, because I was chewing gum! (mind blown)

13. Now I will endeavor to core a strawberry with a drinking straw. But does the stem come out? Oh, oh! Kind of! Maybe give it a little tug? PASS! I mean, if that doesn't look like an appetizing strawberry, I don't know what does.

14. If you find it difficult to cut cake or soft cheese, apparently you can just use regular, unscented dental floss for the job. Let me see about this. Not bad! Look at that, Mark! I mean, that is one perfectly-sliced piece of goat cheese. That was so enjoyable, I'm going to do it again. Oh yeah, that's the stuff.

15. Apparently, if you have trouble opening jars, you just need a little bit of duct tape or electrical tape. So we're going to try this out here. (opens, contents spill) OOOOHHHHHH! OOOHHHHHH! Disaster! I mean, the failiest pass of all time!

16. And now what everything smells like jalapeño slices, I think I'll have some cookies and milk. So apparently, you can spear an Oreo with a fork, and then make it easier to dump in the milk. Come on. There... oh, ow, the pain! Aah! Apparently I'm supposed to stick it in the cream part - thank you, Meredith, for including that  in the instructions, before I gave myself tetanus. Okay! Oh yeah, that is nice. Mmm! (Pass)

17. Apparently, if you're willing to eat an entire container of ice cream - and who isn't - it's easier to use a knife than an ice cream scoop. There we go! I mean, but I still don't... I still don't have access to... there! Eh! I prefer ice cream scoop, fail!

18. Now, the Internet tells me it's possible to open a Hershey's kiss in a single, fluid motion, which I will now attempt... kind of squeeze this part. Sort of? Success, as long as you don't want the Hershey's kiss, you know, in your hand.

19. In "life hacks clearly invented in your fraternity houses" news, we have a Solo cup that has been split into two - thank you Mark - and we will now test whether it improves and amplifies the sound of laptop speakers. Regular... amplified. Fail. Somebody didn't major in acoustical engineering.

20. We all know how difficult it can be to light candles, but apparently, you can light a candle with a stick of spaghetti, and save yourself, you know, potential burns. OHHHHHH... PASS!

21. Apparently, a bottle of Tics Tacs is designed to dispense one Tic Tac at a time. And it did! Success! But I don't want one Tic Tac at a time! There we go.

22. Okay, apparently it's possible to separate an egg using - uh-oh! - using only a water bottle. That wasn't my best egg-cracking ever. Squeeze it in, and then... oh! It totally worked!

(To the kitchen!)

23. I have here a beer, but it is warm, and I don't know if you've ever enjoyed warm Guinness, but no. I also have paper towels, which I am now going to wet. Very scientific wetting... wrap the Guinness around... and put it in the freezer. Then you have to wait about 13 minutes, so I'm going to give Mark and Meredith a lunch break.

24. So here's another freezer life hack - we have a half-full bottle of frozen water lying on its side. But I'm told that if fill it up the rest of the way with normal water, I'll have ice-cold water to drink. Mmm! Pass! 

25. Here we have some Chinese takeout. Apparently, I can open this up in a way that it will turn into a plate. It takes a bit of tugging... but, bam, bam, bam, plate!

26. But if you want to use a proper plate, you need to take your leftovers, dump them onto there, and then spread it out, with a hole right in the middle of the plate, so that your leftovers will heat evenly. And then, of course, you heat up your leftovers. (I don't actually know how to use this thing, because I don't cook my own food, Mark, so if you could heat that up for me, that'd be fantastic.) I'm going to say soft pass on this one; it's not perfectly even, but it's better than I expected.

27. We're going to stick with food, because there are a lot of food-related life hacks, because you know, this is the Internet. Apparently, if you heat up a piece of pizza in the microwave, you can keep the crust crispy if you also heat up a glass of water? You know what, that looks promising... no, it's completely soggy.

28. We're still in the kitchen. Apparently, if you put two pieces of great in the same toaster thingy, then... you get bread that's crunchy on the outside and crispy (sic; he meant "soft") on the inside. Alright... crunchy, soft. It passes the look test, but does it pass the taste test? Yes!

23 (cont). Well, it's only been 11 minutes, but we don't run a charity here. All right, here's my Guinness. It feels cold on the outside, but I won't be able to tell you for sure until I've opened it. In 14 minutes. God! Oh... YES!!! Mmm, mmm! Ice cold!

29. We read on the Internet that if you take un-microwaved popcorn and you open it just the tiniest bit, then the kernels will just come out automatically... I mean, two did. I am not overly impressed with this life hack.

30. We're going to end today with a bang, or at least with a fire. Is it really possible to use Doritos as fire kindling? Let's find out. Alright, Mark, here we go, today's the day we burn down the studio. Meredith, you got the fire extinguisher? That's a nice, slow burn; that's precisely what you want from fire kindling; I'm going to say strong pass!

mental_floss is brought to you with the help of all of these nice people; every week, we try to answer one of your mind-blowing questions. What is this week's question, Mark? And hurry, because the plate is on fire. This week's question comes from Harry Burn, who asks, "Can dogs understand what another dog is saying when they bark? Or is it just barks?" Harry, I have no idea! I am panicked about our Doritos fire! We got to, we got to call this off. We have to deal with this. Okay, obviously do not try this at home... uh, yeah, let's ask our office dog, Alex, about your question.

(Alex montage; on-screen text: Some research has shown that dogs are able to distinguish between different types of barks, but it hasn't proven whether or not they are able to associate meaning with them.)

Thanks again for watching mental_floss on YouTube; if you have a mind-blowing question, please leave it in comments. If we've learned anything today, it's to keep our Doritos in fire-proof safes. As we say in my hometown, Don't Forget To Be Awesome.