Grenades

Grenados, jam tin grenades, the Mills bomb, potato masher, jumping hand grenades, hornet’s nest grenades and chemical hand grenades. Plus falling on a grenade and a public service announcement on how to survive a frag grenade attack.

Music: “Oooh-Oh Boom!” by Benny Goodman with Martha Tilton

Images

Videos

14 Responses

  1. As soon as I looked at the episode title, I wondered how long before the ‘Holy Hand Grenade’ would be brought up. .000 seconds wasn’t a big surprise. 😉

    One thing that caught my mind during my Basic Training (US Army, 1988) was that they taught the ‘shot put’ style of throwing rather than a baseball throw. They didn’t say so, but my assumption is that the baseball throw has the risk of the grenade rolling out of the hand and basically falling at the feet of the thrower.

    Keep up the good work, guys.

  2. Ah, it’s always a nice way to start the week with a brand new episode, especially one so filled to the brim with facts _and_ relevant anecdotes, very much appreciated!

    Not to sound too ungrateful but would you mind adding descriptions/namning the images? It’s kind of hard to relate the picture to the relevant grenade type and/or person/event mentioned in the episode after the fact otherwise.

    To end on a more positive note, great to see you keeping up both the pace as well as the quality of each new show, thanks!

    1. We had the images saved unnamed and I didn’t have time when posting to find their names. I took some time today to track down all their titles and have updated them, plus added a Kugelhandgranate image.

      1. Which was definitely the way to go, it was really a minor quibble but thanks for the quick response and resolution!

  3. This is the recipe I’ve seen for a hand grenade:

    1 shot glass of tequila
    1 shot glass of Jagermeister
    Half a glass of Red Bull.

    Place the shot glasses so that they are in the top of the glass, with the Jager shot glass below the tequila one. To drink it, grab the tequila shot and drink it. This “pulls the pin” on the Jager bomb.

    http://fc01.deviantart.net/fs41/i/2009/031/e/9/Hand_Grenade_by_Kurem.jpg

    My co-workers drink this almost every time we go out.

  4. For a scene in a movie with the ‘Hornets Nest’ or ‘Stinger’ grenade there is one in Adam Sandler’s “The Longest Yard”

  5. Great ep as always. I’m curious what regiment Kevin served in. The first time I threw a greanade I was shaking like a leaf–our range was a FIBUA range (Fire In Built Up Area) so we had to throw the grenade into a small “room” then after it exploded we had to run in and spray the room with automatic weapon fire to clear any remaining enemy–I was a mess for hours after my first try.

  6. Another really fun episode. I especially love the new species of dinosaur you’ve discovered in your research for the grenades episode – the Broncosaurus – not to be confused with the Brontosauras (aka apatosaurus). Thanks again!

  7. Ah… Death Race 2000. Memories…

    That “It’s a hand grenade” scene was the final straw for my friend when we watched it, which would have been around 1998 or 1999. It was a rental VHS, which tells you something about the period. I didn’t even hear the stupid, stupid line because my friend jumped up, ejected the tape, and proceeded to his closet saying “Where’s my hammer?!?” as soon as the shape was visible. I was laughing too hard to effectively convince him not to destroy the tape, but I was able to grab his arm before he brought the hammer down on that movie.

    My convincing argument, once we’d both calmed down, was that if he destroyed a rented tape he’d have to buy it – and did he really want to throw money at that idiotic film?

    Not related to grenades, but related to the utter stupidity of that movie, there’s an earlier scene where one of the competitors – it doesn’t matter which – diverts the competition by stopping in a mountainous area and painting a tunnel entrance onto a rock wall. Sure enough, the next car along mistakes the big black arch for a tunnel and drives into the wall and explodes. Yup, Road-runner-and-Wily-E-Coyote in live-action here.

    1. Death Race 2000 knows full well what it’s doing. It’s not idiotic, it’s cartoonish. It wasn’t a Wile E. Coyote style tunnel, though, it was a detour to a fake tunnel entrance that lead over a cliff. I’m not a huge fan, but its ridiculousness is quite obviously purposeful.

  8. Great episode… Thoren remark about Talibans not liking vaginas made me crack up uncontrollably at my workplace…

    There’s a scene in a brazilian movie that made a moderate success worldwide, Elite Squad, where they show the training of a brazilian elite force. They are forced to stay awake during boring lectures as a part of the training, and if they fall asleep, the instrutor puts a live grenade in their hands, so they will not sleep again. The author of the book the movie is based on swears that really happens.
    You can watch the scene (english subtitled) here: