If I recall correctly, only 1 in 3 people can curl their tongue into a tube, and only about 1 in 10,000 can bend it backwards in half, as can the young lady at this link: http://www.comiczone.com/comics/ripleys/index.html, which I suggest you access before reading on. The date of this comic is 05/11/03.
Are these percentages accurate? If not, what are the percentages?
And here’s the kicker: I can do both! Not only that, I am the only person in the world (so far as I know) who can whistle through that curled-up tongue. What are the percentages on that? Incidentally, both of my eyes are green.
This ability of mine is of much entertainment at parties and other social gatherings and, of course, entirely self-taught. Such are the benefits of boredom whilst doing ones paper route for 5 years in a semi-rural area.
Are there other tongue-whistlers out there? Well, speaking personally, I’m sure we’re all “out there,” but I mean, are there any others? And, ladies, if this account intrigues you, please feel free to email. If you think I’ve just given a new meaning to “The Straight Dope,” please don’t bother.
Finally, one the things I love about this board, and the internet in general, is that I can read “Ripley’s Believe It or Not” every day, and then verify it.
Just how does one engage in “Tonsil Hockey” over the internet? I’ve heard of “One-handed Typing,” on certain chat boards, etc., but one of the utilities of the internet is to making unnecessary (and generallly impossible) the actual, personal contact.
Anyway, I am looking for serious, accurate data on this matter, as well as the much-appreciated other offers.
I had a bit of difficulty accessing your link to Ripley’s cartoon, drmark2000 – it might be easier going to the Ripley’s main page and then clicking on “cartoons”.
Are you my twin, drmark? I can do all three and my eyes are green. I can also wiggle only one ear. I don’t know that any of it has ever impressed anyone. My entire family can those tongue tricks, and there are six of us. Only my youngest brother and I have green eyes, and both of us had blue eyes until third grade, then gray until about sixth grade. What does that make us? The strangest members of our family, that’s what.
I never understood the people who couldn’t roll their tongue. I always attributed it ito their lack of boredom. The only reason I started rolling my tongue is because I didn’t have anything else to do so I played around with my tongue. I never actually tried to whistle through my curled tongue, but I’m sure I could do it with practice. The folding backwards thing is tough, though. I just keep getting a _| 90 degree angle when I try. Are there seperate muscles required to do that? And both of my eyes are hazel…if that means anything.
Oh, and I can also wiggle my ears but not on purpose. I discovered this when I tried to piss off my friends my making a very high pitched sound. For some reason my ears started twitching, the right one more so than the left. It also happens when I try to hit the high notes on Weezer songs.
I can roll my tongue and fold it backwards. I can’t whistle or wiggle my ears, but my father can do both, sometimes even at the same time when I was much younger and in need of entertainment. Oh, and I can also touch my tongue to my nose, which used to impress my friends, but it’s a trick I haven’t showed off in a while.
Since people are mentioning eye colour, both of mine are hazel.
I wonder if she does it the same way I have done it.
Step one: at you leisure tie a knot in a cherry stem.
Step two: place this knotted stem under your tongue
Step three: take another untied cherry stem and proclaim loudly “I, The Great Unwashed, will perform for you a feat so mind-boggling, that the nervous among you may lose sleep…”
I once saw on Funniest Home videos about 8-10 years ago a kid who first rolled his tongue up, then did a double roll (instead of shaped like a U, he could make it like a W)!! I have never seen or heard anything similar since.
Try this for the image from Ripley’s but it’s just a drawing.
