QI | What Was The Chainsaw Invented For? 

"do you know you're absolutely right" gets me everytime

"I've got it!" "what?" "chainsaw, innit."

This reminds me of an anecdote: My mother worked for the U.S. Forest Service a long, long time ago (I think this incident happened in the early 1980s). One of the rangers on the forest she worked with had been sent out one day to do a bit of clearing with a chainsaw. He went out completely alone and, since he would be working with some rather big trees, he had a saw with a particularly long blade. One of the dangers with a chainsaw is that there are a few anomalies that can occur, specifically is one where the blade can snap back in a powerful upward motion (the blade snaps up with the handle remaining pretty much in place... other than rotating). This is exactly what happened while he was sectioning a particularly large log to make it easier to remove. When the blade snapped up, he cut himself in the throat. Worse still, he hit his jugular. Knowing that he'd never make it to a hospital in time he decided to accept his fate, so he calmly sat down and began to take in the beautiful scenery, and make peace with his god as he awaited the eventual end of his time here on Earth. After about 10 minutes, being as he was still conscious, he figured, _''To hell with it! I'll try making it to the hospital and, if I start getting light-headed, I'll just pull over...''_ (he didn't want to pass out, lose control of his vehicle and hurt anyone). Lo and behold though... he made it! After arriving at the hospital - and going though emergency vascular surgery - they told him that he made it by the skin of his teeth... another couple of minutes and he would have died from blood loss. They also told him that, his decision to sit down and ''accept'' his fate had a lot to do with his survival. By doing so, he'd calmed himself, which greatly decreased his heart rate and that was one of the best thing he could have done because it drastically slowed the rate of his blood loss; that, in turn, allowed him just enough time to make it to the hospital. Had he set out for the hospital immediately, while being extremely stressed and worrying all the way whether or not he was going to make it, he probably would have bled out and lost his life (even with the 10 minutes head start). Anyway... that's my chainsaw story.

"It is the ladies ward, so of course there's some baking going on" XD

"I don't know why we're talking about this Steven." 😁 A conversation between two homosexuals, about where one's looking during the moment of conception😂 Brilliant.

Stephen; You were in the right area Jeremy: Circumcision! Genuinely laughing my arse off xD

This is by far my favourite quiz show of all time. It doesn't matter how low & down in the dumps I'm feeling, this show always makes me laugh! 😂🤣

I love it how Sandy always makes these 'boy vs girl' remarks about History, *but she's always right*

Before we'd invented anaesthetic, all operations were essentially just attempted murder.

Sandy's reaction after getting the answer right was one of "oh for god's sake, I was meant to be joking" 😆

I love how she just *knew* what the reason it was created for would be. All the time I'm thinking "what? don't be ridiculous" and then he drops the bombshell and I'm barely believing it... then the picture shows up and I'm like "...okay, that's fucked up".

2:09 Caesarian, easy as popping out of the sunroof 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Jeremy's face at 3:49 kills me hahahaha

No matter how many times I watch this clip it still makes me laugh :)

“I don’t know why you and I are having this conversation.”

I know it seems barbaric to us today, but before medicine, arrest of labor essentially had a 100% mortality. So people were desperate. Even if the mother died the baby could survive if otherwise well. Women were mistreated for sure, but the things women did back in those days were so badass and heroic. And just like most real heroes they went completely unrecognized

ladies, I am so glad we were born in this day and age!

Considering all the crazy shit ancient people stuck inside their orifices, chainsaw isn't that much of a leap.

The moment Stephen realised he had found his successor

Imagine Leatherface running around with one of those hand-cranked chainknives.

Sandi and Stephen is the ULTIMATE mlm/wlw solidarity!!

Sandi saying, " I don't know why WE'RE having this conversation" lol

02:09 “Pop it out the sunroof” - as a C-section birth myself - I’ve being saying that phrase for years!

He has such an innocent view of heterosexual intercourse. I love it.

Your evening's nightmare fodder brought to you by QI

Stephen is so gay in the most innocent way possible. I adore him.

Once again, internal combustion engines saved lives by moving the focus away from women to trees.

I think Clarkson might actually even be more horrified than Sandy Sandy is like 'yep, same shit as always'

I love how at about the 1:40 mark you can see Jeremy isn't laughing in the slightest- I think he wished, for once, that he had been well off-mark!

Stephen's tie is amazing in this clip.

I have a "chainsaw" like that in my hiking gear, its light and packs small and is incredibly useful for creating firewood out in the bush.

Aaaaand this is why Sandi was picked to take over from Stephen on this show. She’s clever, articulate, witty, likeable, brilliant choice.😁

One has to love sandy.. she's intelligent, funny and a great role model

I have this old hard cover book at home called 'The History of Surgery" It is nightmare fuel. If I lived back then, I would rather just die than get surgery, even IF it went well.

I remember when Sandi was a guest. Also, 1783 was a great year. Mozart wrote his great mass, King George recognised the independence of the American States.

1:56 Not quite, this procedure is actually still used today albeit extremely rare when a C-section is too dangerous and as a "serious to God last resort if we don't do this there will be death" scenario

It's called a Gigli saw and it was used in neurosurgery also. The wires was very fine and were twisted.An osteotome is like a chisel with a both edges sharpened. Sometimes your fact checkers are out in left field.

3:49 Jeremy's face 😂

I literally held my wife's leg while she gave birth to our son. It was an incredible, beautiful experience no father should be denied. :-(

From the U.S., never heard of this show. Trying to find it on Netflix or Amazon next thing.

Probably the best moment in QI I have ever seen hahahah 0:30 - 0:56

what i'm learning here is that the Chainsaw Man vs. Childbirth Devil arc is going to be _extremely short_

I love that the video immediately starts with the titular question.

GLORIOUS Sandi!

For the Emperor's glorious Astartes.

honestly, in a time without proper anatomical knowledge, this brutal procedure was likely safer than cutting open the abdomen. Only a matter of degrees of awfulness but still.

Fun fact: ostotomy is absolutely still performed, but now they use reciprocating saws. Or circular saws. Or rotary tools. They use power drills too. Really, it looks even *more* like carpentry these days. ;-)

I adore Sandi🥰🥳🥳

3:52 The guy looks like he's on Land of the Giants on some Matchbox game show and the Giants toilet paper dispenser is behind his head

My reply if asked what the chainsaw was originally invented for, would be "horror movies"

how knowledgeable is this man

I'm a man and I'm not religious but if I were a woman living before twentieth century, I would have become a nun to avoid the immensely painful and potentially fatal event known as childbirth.

I thought about C-section as a joke. The one time I'm too disturbed to laugh at a QI clip.

amazing bit

My god sandi does my head in 🙄

fun language fact: in swedish, Chainsaws is called Motorsåg, literal translation is Enginesaw or Motorsaw.

Women are incredible,since forever!

The humor of my past and present relatives is great comfort for the soul. Yes I'm American from Irish and British descent.

I would have loved it if he said "norow, it's a boy! Whoops not anymore!"

Weird when Sandi is a guest and doesn't know things. Almost as if Stephen possessed a Torch of Godly Omniscience and passed it to Sandi when she took over as host.

In 100 years, they will look back at our medicine in kind of the same way. Amazing, isn't it?

The lady is quite funny.

Best clip of Sandy ever. She's so smart hahaha

well this took a turn

Stihlborn?

“Chainsaw, innit.”

From the thumbnail, I thought the guy with the long hair was going to be James May, instead I got Clarkson, well enough.

3:00 Ripper from Fallout 4 anyone?

‘Proctology’ would be a funny answer to almost any question.

What was the chainsaw invented for? Hunting down college scantily clad students in Texas.

They did have anesthetics in the 1700's ---- its called Scotch Whiskey.

Jeremy Clarkson stopped himself from making a gay joke right at the start.

Seems like a cool show.

I didn't know that, I always believed it started as a chain mortiser.

One of the best things about our time is the nurotic habit of people washing their hands

"I don't know why you and I are having this conversation..."

They still exist as a chain. We use them to dismember dead in womb calves to save the mother cow's life. It is unpleasant, but when the calf is dead and mom is dying, someone has to reach in, wrap the chain, and do the work necessary to save the mom cow. As horrible as all this may sound, the other option in that day was death of mother and child due to incompatibility of pelvic size to baby size, so while it makes us all cringe, wanting anything but death can make necessitity a mother's intervention, heh.

Huh, well that puts a whole different perspective on the ending of 'Bad Taste'.

Osteotomy wire (not unlike the original) is still used in orthopaedic surgery.

So, before they were used to cut down trees, chainsaws were used to cut through the bush? :-D

James May is looking well in this, Hammond seems to have turned into a woman

Q: what was the chainsaw invented for? A: for purging heretics in the name of the God Emperor!

That's why QI exists! XD

They say that C-Sections were not practised in the 1700s whenever the chain saw was invented. But in Macbeth, Macduff is said to be born by caesarean and Macbeth was written in 1606 so Shakespeare must have known about it

Proctology. Lol, Clarkson. Though circumcision is overkill

We really do live in the best of times......

And this is how Sandi got the gig lol

The dangers of C-section is that they have to cut about and inch and a half into the body, the dangers with that are obvious. As it may not be as gruesome as a chainsaw birth but it certainly is a quick way to kill someone if an accident occurs.

Sandie And Alan's Comments .

Sandy and Stephen work well together, they should co-host

Chainsaw "Rowrrrrr" it's a Bo... Whoops it's a Girl!

Because the Texas Hedge-Trimmer Massacre wasn't thought to be quite out there enough.

Of course they did. The babe's extraction is more important than the mother's life. Especially if the husband insists ''he doesn t care for the cow, he needs the boy''..doctors had the same policy

If you were going to use one to 'slice an arse in half', you could start with Clarkson!

Look up symphysiotomy and Ireland. Warning: it's horrifying.

That's pretty fucking gruesome tbh. Obviously it isn't a modern chainsaw, but still.

Is it just me or does that guy look like a cross between David Mitchell and Seth McFarland?

It wasn't "before" anesthetic, it was when drugs such as opium, morphine, nitrous oxide, etc, were all used more as upper class party drugs, rather than being seen as something useful for medical use.

Any Outlander fans? Claire would be going insane at this. haha.

Chainsaw man, Chainsaw man!