Josh tastes “the entire universe”
Josh decides to show off his sense of taste. As he leaves the room and calls to Tom Cashman that he needs to come to the kitchen, Tom calls back to inform him that “That’s not where the kitchen is”.
Once they are both actually in the kitchen, Josh wonders out loud about how many things he should taste in order to show off his ability, and opts for a target of 100.
Josh closes his eyes, while Tom selects and feeds him samples of food. He incorrectly identifies turmeric as cumin, and then incorrectly guesses that some whole lentils are unpopped popcorn kernels (after initially questioning whether they are even food).
Tom continues to select various foodstuffs from around the kitchen for Josh to taste, while attempting to disguise the sounds made while opening the jars and packets by coughing.
As the whistle blows, Josh asks how he did, and no-one is able to give him an answer, since no-one was keeping count.
In the studio, Jenny and Josh get into an argument over which of their taste tests was the most effective demonstration of their senses of taste. Josh argues that Jenny had picked out just a few things to taste herself, and so knew what they all were, while he had been tasting completely blindly “from the entire universe”, so his correct guesses were more impressive. Jenny rebuts by pointing out that she had chosen lots of things with the same texture, so her guesses were based purely on how they tasted, and not how they felt in her mouth. As she goes on to argue that you should only change one variable at a time in a scientific experiment, Anne Edmonds leans back in her chair and pretends to fall asleep. As Josh and Jenny continue to argue, Anne eventually ‘wakes up’ and shouts “Everyone here is a nerd!”, thus coining the episode title.
Tom Gleeson asks Josh how many things he thinks he tasted, since he clearly didn’t achieve his goal of 100. Josh answers that it was however many Tom Cashman had given him, and initially resists Tom Gleeson’s pressure to make an estimate, but eventually guesses 32. Tom Cashman then reveals that Josh had actually tried 31 different foodstuffs.
It is revealed that Josh had correctly identified 24 of the 31 foodstuffs, giving him a success rate of 77.41%. He therefore earns second place, and 4 points, but then loses 2 of his points for choosing the same sense as Jenny, so nets 2 points.
(Written by JoGo and proofread by Karl Craven)
(Illustrations collected and adjusted by: David Fuller)
